I'll Be There
by nekonohime
Summary: Ever since the Battle of Sugar Rush, Wreck-It Ralph had created quite a name for himself, and gained the respect he always longed for. However, when a new character introduced to the arcade comes into his life, he begins to realize that something else was missing.
1. Spring Fever

_**Chapter 1: Spring Fever**_

Stanley Litwak was a connoisseur of video games. Whenever he found a game that piqued his interest, he would jump at the chance to order it for his arcade. Most other establishments in the area only cared about having the latest and greatest games to scrape in money from their customers. That wasn't the case for Mr. Litwak. He genuinely loved his job, seeing his customers happy and bringing in all sorts of games. The other arcades didn't stand as tall as Litwak's because of the variety of games that he had and his seniority in the business.

One day, Mr. Litwak was browsing through the online trading post for arcade cabinets to see if anything new had appeared. Lately, he hadn't found anything particularly interesting. Most of the games that he saw were either ones that he already had. If it was something he didn't have, the asking price from the seller was beyond ridiculous. He sat back and sighed as he scrolled through the listings further. Nothing was grabbing him, and he was about to give up and just call in something from one of his main providers.

That is, until something he thought he would never see again cross his eye.

The arcade owner made a light gasp as he saw the listing before him. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, and had to wipe his glasses to make sure he wasn't seeing things. When he put them back on, the listing was still there.

"Well I'll be a monkey's uncle", he said in shock before he started reading the link title aloud.

"_Spring Fever _1984 Arcade Game Machine... Rare."

He clicked on the link to see the next page. What he saw had confirmed that this was indeed the cabinet that he had thought of. Back in 1985, when he attended his first gaming expo, he had seen _Spring Fever_ on the show floor. Stan played it for a bit and he really enjoyed it, and he wanted his own copy for his arcade. He looked around everywhere to see if anyone was selling it, and his efforts were regrettably fruitless.

And now, after twenty-nine years or searching, he's finally struck gold. He couldn't keep his excitement contained as he read the description of the item. It stated that the game may have been used, but the seller had restored it to near mint condition. However, his expression changed when he saw the price.

"Thuh... _Three thousand dollars_?! Normally I would never pay this much for a single cabinet, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity! There's no way I can afford to let this out of my grasp!"

Mr. Litwak clicked on the "Buy Now" option, put in his billing information and the deal was set without any further hesitation. He surely hoped that he made the right decision, but in his heart of hearts, he thought that he did. Out of every game that he had seen over the years trying to get for his collection, he sought after _Spring Fever_ the most. According to his research, the game didn't sell very well at the time of its release, so production on the cabinets ceased. There were only a limited amount of copies left, therefore not that many game collectors had it. The fact that Stan was able to get a copy meant a lot to him.

He checked his email to see if he had gotten any confirmation on his order, and he did. The email said that the game would be sent to the arcade by next week. As soon as the transaction was complete, the man stood up and did a little dance. Awkward, but he was so happy that he could hardly stand it. Now was the time that he needed to go out, grab the missus and celebrate.

- 0 - 0 - 0 -

A week had passed, and Litwak was now out in the parking lot waiting for _Spring Fever _to arrive. At noon, as promised, the truck of Dennis Nichols, the seller, pulled up in the parking lot. After looking for a place to park, he got out of his vehicle and started walking towards the arcade owner. The man was about the same age as Stan, with a collared shirt with a breast pocket. He took a piece of paper out of said pocket and adjusted his glasses after he shook the other man's hand.

"I've got your order for you, sir", Mr. Nichols said, "It's sittin' in the back of the truck. You mind helping me get it out?"

"No problem!" Mr. Litwak responded as he followed him to the back of the truck to get the game out. Dennis opened the back and climbed inside to grab the push cart first, then once he got that, he summoned Litwak to help him get the game out. It was covered with a tarp to protect it from environmental damage. As soon as the game collector lowered the ramp on the back of the vehicle, the two men hoisted the cabinet on top of the push cart and wheeled it on the pavement.

Litwak led Nichols through the parking lot and to the doors of the arcade. He held the door open for the seller as he moved the game inside. The kids turned their heads when they heard Dennis bring the game in, with Stan telling him where to place it. Once they found somewhere to set _Spring Fever_, Litwak took the tarp off and looked at the cabinet.

The sign in front of the green console displayed its name in a whimsical orange and yellow font. Looking on the side, there was a picture of the main character, Autumn Bramblewood, inside of a circle frame of the same colors. Most of her hair was hidden inside of a headscarf, and you could only see her light red bangs. The control panel and the sides of the screen were decorated with various types of animals that you would see on the countryside. There were also pictures of the girl and some flowers near the quarter slot.

"Everything seems to look good on the outside", Litwak announced, "Now to check the inside."

He went behind the console and took out the back to see the internal wiring. Everything looked spick and span as he was promised, and he gave Dennis a thumbs up. "Looks good in here too."

"Are you ready to turn it on?" Mr. Nichols asked.

"You bet my whiskers I am", Stan answered, "I've been waiting a long time for this moment!"

Once the game was plugged in, he stepped back and watched the main menu of _Spring Fever_ appear. An eight-bit rendition of Antonio Vivaldi's _Spring _began to play as soon as Mr. Litwak pressed the '"jump" button and was taken to the first level of the game. He controlled Autumn as she had to attack enemies with her gardening tools that were trying to steal plants and animals from her farm. The gameplay went on until Litwak lost all his lives where he was greeted with a game over screen, where his character was standing in front of him with her head lowered and tears in her eyes.

"Oh, fiddlesticks", the arcade owner sighed, "Guess I wasn't as good at this game as I thought I was. But anyway..."

He turned to Dennis and shook his hand once again. "Thank you, Mr. Nichols. I really appreciate you selling _Spring Fever_ to me."

"It was no trouble at all", the other man responded graciously, "I knew that it would be in the right hands with you."

Dennis turned to walk out the door after they said goodbye to each other. He finally did it... After waiting for twenty-nine years, _Spring Fever_ was finally in Stanley Litwak's arcade, just waiting for customers to line up and try it out. Since he was such joy over getting it, he allowed everyone to have their first round on the house. The arcade owner beamed with pride as he watched the gamers play.

However, not everyone was happy. Some kids got bored with the game and walked away, while others complained that the music was annoying. A couple of boys even said that the game was 'girly'. Litwak was not pleased with that comment one bit and scolded them for saying it. He wanted everyone to be able to play no matter who they were. Despite the negative reviews, there were still a few kids that liked _Spring Fever_. Suzy, one of his regulars, was one of them.

She stepped up to the console after the other kids finished their games. Pressing the button to start, she grabbed the joystick and went through the first level. The bleeping and blooping violin concerto played again, guiding the heroine of the game through the colorful stage. Suzy bopped several woodland creatures on the head with swift jumps. When they were defeated, she collected the produce that dropped on the ground into her weaved basket, and the farm animals that were spared fled back to their pens. The point tally in the corner of the screen skyrocketed as the girl was defeating the enemies with such grace and agility.

At the end of the level, Suzy encountered a large bear, which she had to use her shovel to defeat it, since jumps weren't enough. She whacked it over and over again until the bear ran away. Soon the level results screen appeared and gave the girl her final score. Autumn clasped her hands together and smiled gleefully at Suzy as the "press jump to continue" message appeared.

Mr. Litwak gave the girl an impressed look. "Great job, Suzy! What did you think?"

"It's really fun", the girl answered, "I would play it again!"

"I'm glad to hear that. It brought me down a bit to hear that some of the other kids' reviews on _Spring Fever_, but I'm glad it's getting some good feedback."

"Those guys were being dumb. They don't know a good game when they see one."

"Well, I wouldn't say they were dumb", the man corrected, "They just need to broaden their horizons more."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Mr. Litwak." Suzy turned and began to walk away towards the back of the arcade to look for another game to play.

For the rest of the day, Stan observed the arcade as he usually does. The customers were playing

their favorite games, and everything was going smoothly. He was relieved to see that bringing in _Spring Fever_ was at least a modest success. He didn't expect the kids to like it as much as he had wanted to, since it was an older game, but he knew that it would get a least a few players. Litwak also figured that everyone had their favorite games that they always went to, and some people weren't comfortable with going to a game that they had never played before. Perhaps with some time, it would gain more quarters and it will become a favorite in the store.

- 0 - 0 - 0 -

"The arcade's closed!"

The main character in _Spring Fever_ jumped when she heard the voice of the _DDR_ dancer call out her daily announcement. She stepped up to the glass of the game's monitor to see the characters from the neighboring consoles walking off their screens, discussing their plans for the evening. Being a newcomer to Litwak's, she had no idea what was going on.

"Yo", someone from the combat racing game nearby shouted, "Let's meet up in Game Central Station tonight! Tapper's startin' happy hour soon!"

"Oh, I hear ya brotha", a character from the boxing game across from it replied.

"Station...?" her wispy voice emitted quietly, wondering what they were talking about. Curious, she started walking around her house to see if she could find any signs of one. Much to her dismay, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. She went back to her porch and sighed, wondering how everyone else was leaving their games.

_"That's odd"_, she thought, "_there wasn't a station where I used to be plugged in..."_

She decided that she wanted to continue looking, so she got up and went further in the back towards the forest where the enemies in her game lived. Once again, there wasn't anything there that seemed unusual, and she began to get frustrated. She supposed that there wasn't a station inside of the game, so she decided to give up and go to sleep for the rest of the night. Walking back down the path away from the forest and to the house, Autumn thought about her old place. She missed the good old days where the kids in Carl's Diner would line up and play after having a cheeseburger and a shake.

The woman wiped a tear from her face when she thought back to the moment that she was unplugged, thinking she would never awaken again. She was lucky that she was here now, and appreciated that she was given a new home. The adjustment to Litwak's Arcade wasn't going to be easy, since Carl's was a smaller place, but she felt like she was going to be okay. Mr. Litwak seemed really nice, and despite some of the kids making harsh comments about her game, there were still some that enjoyed it.

The gardener was so consumed in her own thoughts that she didn't hear the loud sound coming from behind her. She turned her head and saw that there was a dirt road that she had never seen before. Looking ahead, she saw a tractor with a trailer attached to it with the logo of her game as the license plate. Autumn walked closer to the vehicle and noticed that there was a sign next to it saying, "To Game Central Station." Light bulbs went off in the lady's head as she finally found what she had looked for.

Now that she had found the way to the station, she was contemplating whether she should go in or not. She never had the chance to do anything of the sort before, and she was worried about what would happen if she left her game. The last thing she wanted was for something to happen to her and she wouldn't be able to go back. However, she saw everyone else coming and going just fine, so she assumed that she would be too. She breathed and climbed into the tractor.

Autumn began to chant to herself as the hayride started to move towards the dark tunnel.

"I'm going to be fine... Nothing's going to happen... Everyone else is doing it, and I shouldn't be scared..."

For the rest of the ride, the heroine of _Spring Fever_ watched the surges of electricity carry the tractor through the internal wiring of the game. Since her game was the only one at Carl's, she was totally unaware that the concept of traveling like this. She was scared and excited at the same time over what she was going to see once she got to the other side of the pathway. To keep herself calm, she started humming the theme song to her game until she started seeing a patch of light in the distance.

When the hayride came to a full stop at the end of the track, Autumn stepped off the trailer and saw the entrance to Game Central Station. Her eyes went wide in awe as she saw how big the terminal actually was. As she walked down the steps of the dock, she could only muster a whisper.

"This is it."


	2. New Neighbor

_**Chapter 2: New Neighbor**_

Wreck-It Ralph walked through Game Central Station with many thoughts on his mind. The day before, his friend, Vanellope von Schweetz, told him to come to _Sugar Rush_ because she wanted to show him something important. What that was, Ralph didn't know, but it was fun thinking of the possibilities. For all he knew, she was probably going to give him another handmade gift like the cookie medal that he kept close to his heart. As the thought of it arose, he took it out from under his shirt and gazed at it.

_"I never would've thought that something like this would mean so much to me"_, Ralph thought, tracing the lettering of 'You're My Hero' with his fingers, "_but heck, that kid really started to grow on me... No matter what else she gives me, nothing is going to come close to this."_

Ever since the Battle of _Sugar Rush_, where he helped eradicate Turbo and give Vanellope her status as the true leader, Ralph had created quite a name for himself. He had started to gain respect from the other characters in the arcade. Long gone were the days where everyone would avoid him and act like he was a monster. Now, when he was out in the station, people would greet him and treat him as if he was an old friend. Ralph was now relishing in what he had always longed for, and had never felt happier in all his thirty-one years of being plugged in.

However, there was a small, nagging thought that would cross his mind now and then. Something that he preferred not to think about. Ralph always shooed it away as soon as it started to creep up on him, but in certain situations, he just couldn't help it. The last time it happened, he was out with his co-worker, Fix-It Felix Jr., while they were at _Tapper_ having some drinks a few nights ago. They had made small talk as they usually do, but somehow the conversation had turned into Felix gushing about his wife, Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun.

Ralph always tuned him out when he did so because he had found it annoying, to be frank. Sure, he was happy that Felix was in marital bliss with the tough as nails sergeant. He was honored that he was the best man at their wedding. The problem was that he couldn't relate to anything that he was talking about, and he found it embarrassing. Ralph was alone for most of his life, and he never cared about having _that_ type of relationship. Hearing about the handyman's honeyglows was just awkward, and the only thing he could do in the situation is just to simply nod and agree with whatever he was saying.

At the same time, those thoughts were going through Ralph's head. He couldn't help but wonder what it was like to have someone by his side like Calhoun was for Felix. And, as much as he hated to admit it, he wondered what honeyglows felt like. The man shook his head and groaned in frustration.

"Why am I thinking about this?" he mumbled to himself, "Nobody would... Feel like _that_ about me!"

Trying to forget about it, Ralph continued to concentrate on walking through the crowd and getting to _Sugar Rush_ as fast as possible. Vanellope would always grow impatient when

he showed up even a second late when they planned a meeting, and he surely didn't want to have to endure her rants when he arrived. It didn't help that the crowd seemed thicker than normal, but then he remembered that _Tapper_ was in the middle of happy hour. Ralph used to attend it quite regularly, but since he met Vanellope, he didn't go as much since he didn't feel the need. On the other hand, he felt like he needed a drink later to make sure his earlier thoughts won't return.

Ralph spotted the port that he was looking for in the distance and hurried his pace towards it. His feet were carrying him quicker than he realized and didn't notice some of the characters protesting at him to watch where he was going. All the demolisher could focus on was what Vanellope wanted to show him. Only a few feet away from his destination, Ralph could feel the sense of relief go through him as he saw the sign for the game come closer into view.

That is, until he started to hear someone whimpering out of earshot. The wrecker turned his head to find the source of the sound, and he saw a character that he hadn't seen before. She was standing in the middle of the sprawling terminal fidgeting with the tie of her headscarf. He could tell that something was wrong with her, and his gut was telling him to go over and check to see what was going on. Ralph walked up to her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Pardon me, ma'am", he said, "Are you alright? You seem to be lost."

The woman turned around and looked at Ralph with her doe-like eyes, then backed away and pulled a shovel out of hammerspace.

"DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!" She shouted, "I HAVE A WEAPON!"

"Woah, woah, woah", Ralph stammered, holding his hands up, "Slow down there! I was just trying to help you!"

She lowered the gardening tool slightly. "... How... How do I know you're not just trying to play a trick on me!?"

"I'm not the type to play tricks on people", the demolisher retorted.

A whimper emitted from the shorter character. Ralph groaned and put his hand on his face in annoyance before he started speaking again.

"Look, all I ask is for you to tell me why you're standing here."

The female hesitated and didn't say anything for several seconds, attempting to get a closer look at the taller program. He was big and scary looking with his large hands and scruffy appearance, and she wasn't sure if she should trust him or not. All she could do was stand there contemplating on what she should do. Ralph folded his arms and waited for her to do something, but when she wasn't budging.

"Hello, is anyone home?" he asked.

"I'm sorry!" the girl suddenly squealed while she started bowing , "I'm so sorry!"

Ralph sighed and put his hands on his hips and sighed, "You don't have to apologize..."

"B-But I—"

"Save it."

He looked at her again and pointed a finger at her, making her flinch back slightly. "I'm gonna say it one more time: tell me why you're here."

"I-I", the woman mumbled, "... I left my game just now, and..."

Tears starting forming in her eyes as she finished her sentence. "... I don't know how to get back. I was just taking a stroll around for a while to see everything, but then I started to lose track of where I was. I've been out here for a really long time."

The giant's aggravation turned into pity when he heard how scared she sounded. With a frown spreading across his face, he tried to make his tone a bit more gentle. "It's okay, don't worry about it. Game Central Station is a big place, and it's pretty easy to lose your way."

Ralph turned his head towards the map nearby and asked, "Did you check the map?"

"No", the other character answered, tugging her headscarf again.

"C'mon, let's go look at it", he insisted as he beckoned the woman to follow him. She obliged, but didn't get too close since she was still intimidated. When they got to the map, Ralph looked at it while the girl wringed her hands nervously. Never did the wrecker think he would have to end up helping someone find their way back home in Game Central Station.

"What's your game called?" Ralph inquired.

"_Spring Fever_", she said.

"Never heard of it."

"It just got plugged in today."

The man finally understood the situation. It was no wonder why she didn't know where she was going. New characters always seemed to have a hard time adjusting to how big the station is, but once they knew the lay of the land, they were fine. However, none of them seemed to be as spaced out as this strange lady before him. He examined the map for a bit longer before he spotted it.

"Ah, looks like you're game is in between _Flaming Engines _and_ Fatal Assault_", Ralph announced,_  
_

The girl started sniveling again when she looked at the map and realized how far she traveled.

"Woah, hey, don't start crying on me", Ralph said in a panic, "I'm no good at comforting people, so try to compose yourself!"

"But I don't know how to get back!" she cried.

"It's okay, I'll help you get back", he blurted out without realizing it. By the time he did, he wanted to kick himself. Vanellope was definitely going to chew him out later for being so late.

"Really...?" the woman asked, clasping her hands together.

Ralph growled and wished he hadn't gotten himself in this situation. He really got himself into a hole now that he couldn't get out. "Yeah, I guess so..."

"I... I guess you're not like a giant, scary bear after all!"

The wrecker gave her the most weirded out expression on his face that he could muster. "... Pardon?"

"Your size... You reminded me of the bear in my game. He's the boss in the first stage, and I have to hit him with my shovel."

"So you thought it would be a good idea to try to threaten _me_ with it?" he asked in bewilderment.

She looked down at the ground in shame.

Ralph just looked at her with even more bewilderment. "... What the heck kind of game are you from...?"

"Just a platformer", the farmer answered innocently, "I have to protect my farm from getting attacked by woodland creatures. They really have a taste for vegetables, and they like to scare my livestock too." she put her hand on her forearm and looked off to the side.

Painful nostalgia panged in Ralph's chest when he was reminded of his in-game backstory. He remembered living in a forest before the Nicelanders tore it down and put their apartment building over it. All he had left to his name was his stump and the clothes on his back.

"Are you okay?" the other character asked when she noticed his awkward body language. Ralph shrugged it off and didn't pay it any mind.

"It's nothing", he mumbled, "Now let's get you outta here before I start getting a migraine."

She walked behind him as he lead the way to the port which lead out of Game Central Station. He was certainly not happy that this was keeping him from seeing Vanellope, but this lost program looked like she would have stood in the terminal all day if he didn't do something. The two remained silent for most of the walk to _Spring Fever_'s port, finding it difficult to find anything to talk about. It wasn't until Ralph found the girl tugging on the sleeve of his shirt did he look down and saw that she was gazing at him curiously.

"What's the matter?" he asked gruffly.

"Eep!" she let go and covered her eyes. "I-I... I was just going to... Ask you what your game was..."

Ralph couldn't understand her as the volume in her voice got lower with each word. "Sorry, but you're gonna have to speak up."

She took a deep breath and stated louder, "What is your game?"

"Oh, uh..." Ralph scratched his head. "I'm from _Fix-It Felix Jr._"

"What do you do?"

The wrecker was hesitant to answer her question, since he didn't know how she was going to react to what he was going to say. He sighed and prepared himself to speak. "... I'm the bad guy."

The female covered her mouth with her hands and gasped silently. "Really...?! It's... No wonder why I feel a bit... Intimidated by you."

"I get that a lot", Ralph replied. "Anyway..."

He showed her his hands, which made her squeak and back away. The bad memories started to come back again as Ralph started to explain his role in his game. "... I have to wreck a building, and the hero of the game, Fix-It Felix Jr., has to fix it."

Starting to notice her terrified and trembling face, he tried to reassure her with, "I haven't hurt anyone outside the game, I promise... At least, not on purpose." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I'm a bit clumsy."

She peered up at him and could tell that he was being honest. For someone whowas supposed to be a villain, he didn't really act like one. Doing a friendly deed such as helping someone find their way around a terminal didn't seem very evil. Lacing her fingers together, she projected her voice so he could hear her.

"Are you sure you're a bad guy? I mean... I know you're very large and break things in your game, but your behavior is... Is a bit strange. I thought bad guys are supposed to do bad things."

"I'm definitely a bad guy", Ralph began, "but I don't act like one when I'm off the clock. It's just a role I play, and most of the characters around here do the same. When we're not working, we can be ourselves."

The other program put her hands behind her back and stared at her work boots. "I-I see... In my game, I'm supposed to be brave, but now... I'm a big coward."

"You're not the only one that's been afraid of me", the eight-bit bad guy said, "and besides, you're new around here, right?"

She nodded.

"It's just the stress of being in a new place, is all. You'll get used to it eventually."

"Y-Yeah, I guess so..."

As they were talking, they walked through the station looking for the girl's game. Ralph could tell that she was starting to get at least a bit more comfortable with him now that he had explained himself. He started to see that she wasn't as weird as he initially thought; she just needed to get used to life in the arcade a bit more. Vanellope was the same way when she first left her game, but he thought that this _Spring Fever_ person seemed a lot more out of the loop.

His thoughts were interrupted by his companion shouting, "THERE IT IS!"

Ralph perked his head up and saw the quirky character running towards the port that they were looking for. The game was at the end of the station, between _Fatal Assault_ and _Flaming Engines, _just as he had pointed out before. He watched as she stood at the entrance to Spring Fever, her hands were on her cheeks while crying with joy. When Ralph caught up to her, she turned to him and starting bowing out of gratitude.

"Thank you!" she said, "You were a big help... Um..."

She paused for a moment and asked, "... I'm sorry, but I don't think I got your name."

"Wreck-It Ralph", the wrecker replied.

The girl bowed again, "I'm eternally grateful to you, Mr. Wreck-It."

"Just call me Ralph", he insisted.

"Okay, Ralph it is, then!"

She smiled at him for the first time, which caused Ralph to go slightly pink. When he realized this, he turned his head away and coughed. He wasn't used to people other than his friends smiling at him like that. Hearing her say his name made him realize that he didn't hear hers.

"I should ask what your name is too, ma'am."

"Oh!" The girl curtseyed before she gave her reply. "My name is Autumn Bramblewood, the main character of _Spring Fever_."

"It was nice meeting you, Autumn", Ralph said while extending his hand out to her. Autumn squeaked again seeing his giant appendage going towards her. He responded curling all of his fingers except his index, getting the message that it would be difficult for her to shake his entire hand. She eyed it again before taking it into her hands and shaking it like it was something fragile. When she was done, he put his hand back to his side and he prepared to walk to _Sugar Rush_.

"Sorry, but I have to go now. My friend has waited for me for a while now."

Autumn looked at him with a worried tone. "Oh no, I didn't make you late, did I?"

"A little", he answered, "but hopefully Vanellope won't mind."

"Well I won't keep you then!" The farmer turned to the deck where her hayride trolley was waiting. "I hope we can see each other again, Ralph. It was nice walking around with you... Even though you have scary hands."

Ralph burned with embarrassment again. The comment offended him a bit, but at this point in his life he was used to people treating his hands like some otherworldly thing. All he could muster was a simple, "Yeah."

Autumn started to wave at him as he lumbered out of sight. He saw it out of the corner of his eye and turned around to wave back, then continued going.

"Geez, that really got me off track", he muttered, "Vanellope's gonna kill me. I promised her I wouldn't be late... but after helping that girl, I'm more than late."

As he walked the path to his destination, his mind went back to its original thoughts of what Vanellope's "super important thing" was. Taking the cookie medal back out, he reminisced about all the good times he spent with his tiny kart-racing friend. The medal proved that he meant the world to her. It was the symbol of their friendship, and something that he never wanted to lose sight of. Even if she called him insulting names like "Stinkbrain" and "Doodyhead", he knew that it was terms of endearment. In fact, he got worried when she called him by his real name.

"I bet she's gonna call me Ralph when I get in here", the man stated as he reached the entrance to the candy-themed game. He looked around to see if the Surge Protector was standing nearby ready to grill him, but it appeared that he was too busy playing security at Tapper's happy hour.

"Nice distraction", Ralph snickered, walking into the game with no problem. The trolley going into _Sugar Rush_ was too small of his size, like most of the station trolleys were, but he managed to fit anyway. He sat back as it carried him away through the tunnel and to the rainbow bridge where Vanellope was to meet him. The train came to a stop, and Ralph got out and walked down the bridge to see his friend leaning against her kart impatiently.

"Kid!" he called out. She looked up when she heard his voice, and she immediately ran towards him. He opened his hands for a hug, but all he got was a kick to the shin.

"You're late, Ralph", she said, "do you know how long I've been waiting out here?! It's not safe for a president to be out here alone, you know!"

Rubbing his leg he retorted, "Well, I have a perfectly good reason for being late, Ms. President."

"Spill it."

Ralph folded his arms as he spoke. "Well... I was helping someone in Game Central Station find their way back to their game."

The president tilted her head and made a skeptical face. "Oh, really...?"

"Yeah, really", he answered.

"Who was it?"

The wrecker looked away from her, trying to protect himself in case his face decided to be stupid and go red.

"Some girl", he mumbled.

"_Oooooh_... A _girl_, huh?" Vanellope cooed jokingly, waggling her eyebrows.

"Shut up", Ralph growled.

The kid frowned. "Aww, c'mon! You know I'm just playin' around!" After she regained her composure she asked, "Seriously though, who was it?"

"Autumn", he replied, "she's from some game called _Spring Fever_. It was plugged in today, apparently, and she got lost while she was exploring the station. She looked pitiful standing in the middle of the crowd, and I didn't want to just leave her there alone."

Vanellope gave a sound of approval and said, "How was she? She didn't get revolted by your body odor, did she?"

Ralph grumbled in annoyance. "She was... Strange, to say the least. When I first walked up to her, she started hitting me with a shovel!"

"So that's why you have all those red marks", she replied in realization.

"Besides the one_ you_ gave me", he grumbled, "And no, she didn't say anything about the way I smell."

"She probably didn't want to hurt your feelings", Vanellope chuckled.

The man started to get irritated by this conversation, so he decided to derail it. "ANYWAY... I got her back to her game and she's fine. The end."

She pouted. "You're the worst storyteller ever."

"There wasn't any story. I just helped her and that was that."

Leaning closer to his ear, Vanellope whispered, "She was pretty wasn't she?" she leaned back to face Ralph, who gave her a blank expression. "C'mon, Stinkbrain, I can tell by the look on your face she was."

"I-I", he stammered, "I'm not a good judge of beauty."

"You're lame", she sighed, "I guess I'll have to go look for her and find out for myself... Geez, now I don't remember what I asked you here for..."

Vanellope thought for a few moments until she got it. "Oh yeah! That thing I wanted to show you! It's back at the castle, so get on the back of my kart and let's get goin'!"

"Finally", Ralph said, "this better be good."

"Trust me", she answered confidently, "it's pretty awesome, if I do say so myself."

Revving up the engine and taking off into the distance, Vanellope heading towards her castle as fast as she could. Ralph hung on for dear life as he usually does, but he was strong enough to not let himself fall off.

_"What a situation I got myself into today"_, he thought, _"Vanellope invites me to come see something, and then I get sidetracked by that girl in Game Central Station... Now the kid wants to see her... Sweet Mother Hubbard, now I know I'm going to need a drink after this."_

He shook his head and tried to keep his mind off of that, and just focus on what Vanellope invited him to_ Sugar Rus_h for.


	3. I Hereby Dub Thee

_**Chapter 3: I Hereby Dub Thee...**_

Ralph and Vanellope arrived at Sugar Rush castle with the skid of the president's cookie tires. After hopping out of the driver's seat, Vanellope takes her friend's hand and starts leading him to her chambers so she could show him what she has been going on about all this time. The palace was quiet as usual, with a few Oreo guards wandering the halls. As they walked through the corridor, the friends made small talk as they usually do. Ralph continued to guess what Vanellope's surprise was, but much to his dismay, his guesses were way off.

Vanellope was usually pretty terrible at keeping secrets, but she really was able to stump Ralph with this one. If she was able to hang onto it for this long, it must have been something big. The wrecker became more curious as she denied to tell him what she was about to show him, and he felt as if he was going to burst if he didn't find out soon.

The stroll down the hall seemed to become slower and slower with each step while the friends bantered back and forth.

"C'mon, Vanellope, why are you being so secretive about this?"

"'Cause I don't wanna ruin the surprise, genius! Plus, I wanna see your face when you see it... You're gonna poop in your pants!"

"If you're making a claim like that, I better."

Vanellope snickered at her friend's comment. "Trust me, you will."

They continued down the hallway for a while longer until they reached a large door with the words "Presidential Sweet" written on it in bold letters. The president asked the guards in front of the door to step aside and open it for her. They did as they were told and the pair stepped into the large room. Ralph stood by the doorframe as Vanellope ran over to her drawer to find what she wanted to give him. He started to get nervous at the prospect of what she was about to pull out, but it was over all too quickly when he heard her shout, "I found it!"

She came back over to him with an object clasped in her hands, looked up at Ralph and said, "This is it, Stinky! You ready to see it?"

"Of course I am", Ralph answered eagerly, "Just show it to me already!"

"Okay... DRUMROLL PLEASE!"

Vanellope started to make drumming sounds with her mouth as she opened her hands and presented Ralph with her gift. The man looked at it for a few moments, then drew a blank. "... This is what you made me wait for? A pin?"

"Not just any pin, Chumbo", the girl replied, "It's a Presidential Pin... See, look, it has the _Sugar Rush_ seal on it!"

She pointed to the crown on the pin, which Ralph put his finger on it curiously. "I still don't get it. What's so special about it? It just seems like a normal ol' pin to me."

"Well, since you asked..." Vanellope cleared her throat and tried to make herself look professional in her explanation. "... This pin is to commemorate you for your previous efforts in rescuing the fair Democracy of _Sugar Rush_. As thanks from the great President Vanellope von Schweetz..."

The president hopped up and stuck the pin on Ralph's overall strap. "... I hereby dub thee..."

Another drumroll. "... Sir Wreck-It Ralph of the _Sugar Rush_ Secret Service."

Ralph's jaw dropped open when he heard her last sentence. _Sir_ Ralph? Did this mean that he...?

"Bleck, I never wanna talk like that again", Vanellope gagged. She noticed that Ralph had gone totally blank in the face and she attempted to get his attention. "Hey, Ralph? Helloooooo, earth to Ralph!"

"U-Uh... Whu?!"

"Ralph, your brain broke on me!"

"O-Oh... I-I was just..."

The girl smacked her palm on her forehead. "Did you hear anything I just said? I just made you a knight, dummy!"

Ralph tried to speak again. "I... B-But... How is that possible?! I thought democracies didn't have knights!"

"It's my game, I'm the president and I can do whatever I want", she answered, "If I wanna knight somebody, I'm gonna do it! Oh! That reminds me..."

Vanellope went to her drawer again and got two more pins out. "I got pins for the Sarge and Handyman too, since they helped. Give them to them for me, will ya?"

Ralph took the items in his hand and put them in his pocket. "S-Sure... No problem."

"What's the matter with you, Blubber Boy?" von Schweetz asked in an almost worried tone, "Aren't you excited?"

The wrecker didn't say a word for several moments, only standing in his place with his mouth slightly open and his eyes wide. "... OF COURSE I AM!"

The president got startled by his sudden yelling and jumped backwards. After recovering, she started to laugh. "Woah, I was waiting for you to freak out!"

Ralph took a breath and said, "Believe me, I am! Me ... _Sir_ Ralph... I never thought I'd be called a hero, but now I'm a _knight_?!" he chuckled robustly.

"I was planning on doing this a long time ago", Vanellope stated, "but I didn't know what I wanted to do... So I figured making those pins would be a cool idea! It took me forever to find everything to make them, so I'm glad you like it, Stinkbrain!"

"This... This means a lot", he said quietly, "This and your medal. I'll keep them both with me always... And I'll hold my knight title proudly, I promise."

"Let's just hope it doesn't make your head any bigger than it already is!" she laughed.

Ralph rolled his eyes. "So much for me being sentimental."

Vanellope took one of Ralph's fingers and started to lead him out of the room. "Well, you're about to get even more sentimental, 'cause I got one more thing I need to show you!"

The man started at her wide-eyed again. He didn't think he was prepared for anymore surprises today, already just having received a rather prestigious title. Leaving the room, the girl led Ralph down the hallway again and towards the double doors leading to the courtyard of the castle. Ralph had never been there before, and if Vanellope was taking him there, this was probably going to be something even bigger than the pin. The feelings of anticipation returned when they approached the courtyard, which was elaborately decorated with statues of the game's racers scattered all around, including Vanellope herself in her racing suit. There was even a chocolate fountain, which made Ralph feel nauseous upon looking at it.

When he turned his head, he saw something large that was covered in a giant candy wrapper. Okay, now he _knew_ that this was something big. Vanellope requested Ralph to help her take the wrapper from whatever it was covering. Taking it in his hands, Ralph breathed as she counted down from five. When the countdown was over, she and Ralph both pulled the confectious paper off. Ralph, not knowing his own strength, flung it in the air with the president still hanging on for dear life. She wasn't afraid of course, giggling as she let go and landed on her feet back on the graham cracker cobblestone of the courtyard. What Ralph saw next, he couldn't believe.

There, sitting before him, was an enormous candy kart, just like the kids of _Sugar Rush_ drove, but this one was modified to accommodate Ralph's size. He walked around it in awe, taking in every last detail he could. The tires were made of vanilla wafer cookies and the body was constructed with peanut brittle. He was happy to find that there was no trace of chocolate in sight. "The kid really knows well", he mused.

On the bumper, he found a license plate that read: "WRECKER".

The wrecker examined the kart one more time before he gave a whistle of approval. If he was ecstatic about being made a knight, he was _over the moon_ about this. There were no words that he could form to describe how he was feeling in that moment. He was so engrossed in his own thoughts again that he didn't hear Vanellope calling his name. When he did, he shook his head and shifted his focus on her.

"Sorry, kid", he said, "my mind kinda slipped there for a second. I'm just in total shock over everything..."

"It's great, isn't it?" Vanellope asked smugly, "I made it all by myself. It took me so long to make this, I thought I was gonna turn into an old granny by the time I was done!"

"Good thing video game characters don't age, huh?" Ralph laughed.

"Yeah", the girl answered. "but the kart, what do you think of it?! _The Wrecker_ has called your name all week!"

All Ralph could do was mutter, "Wow..."

She giggled and jumped on Ralph's shoulder when he got inside the kart. He already felt at home in it when he sat in the seat and gripped the pretzel wheel. Ralph was always the passenger in Vanellope's kart, but now he was able to control his own, and he had never felt more alive.

"C'mon, start her up!" the president coaxed, "I gotta see how this baby rides!"

"Will do", the man replied as he turned the ignition, causing the engine to roar. His friend cheered as he prepared to take off down the path leading out of the courtyard. Ralph pushed the gas pedal and took off into the distance with Vanellope sitting in the seat next to him.

"I can't believe you went through all the trouble to make this, kid", he said, his eyes glued to the path before him as he drove, "I'm really impressed!"

"There's no way I was gonna have a knight go without his steed!" Vanellope said.

Ralph smiled, taking a turn down a crossroads towards the main race track of the game. He was surprised that he was driving so well, considering that when he was teaching Vanellope, he had no clue what he was doing. The wrecker assumed that he started to pick things up with time, and just stuck with what he told her to do. He was a bit shaky with the steering wheel and they had a few close calls running into obstacles in the road, but for the most part, he was fine.

"Wow, Ham Hands, you're driving pretty good!"

"At least I'm better than you were, Sticky Fingers."

"Yeah, yeah..."

He reached the finish line of the race track and parked in front of it. Turning of the engine, he leaned back into the chair and put his hands behind his back. Ralph was truly proud of himself in that moment, and felt like nothing was going to take it away from him now.

"If only _she_ could see you now", the kid snickered.

"Don't even start", Ralph growled, his face starting to turn red.

Vanellope pouted. "Aww, but she's your friend, right?"

"I told you before, I barely even know her!"

"Don't you _want_ to get to know her?"

Ralph folded his arms and scowled. His friend shook her head and sighed at his stubbornness. She was determined to find out more about the woman that he met, but Ralph seemed to not want to do anything with her. Vanellope climbed on his shoulder and prodded him to get to say something, but he didn't budge. He started to become annoyed with her and he got out of the kart and started walking around.

"I... I can't talk to her again, okay?!" he admitted.

"Why not?" Vanellope asked, surprised, "You helped her get to her game, didn't you? And she told you she wanted to see you again? Sounds like you were pretty nice to her."

"Yeah", he mumbled, "but... I don't know if it will work out."

The president put her hand on his. "Of _course_ it will work out! You managed to become friends with me, right? Stop being such a diaper baby and go visit her sometime!"

The wrecker snorted air out of his nose like a bull. "I'm not going."

"C'mon, Ralph, you obviously like her. Look at your face... It's redder than a hot tamale!"

Ralph instinctively covered his face and groaned, causing his pint-sized sidekick to snicker again. "Sweet mother of monkey milk, I've never seen you so flustered! She's probably a _knock-out_!"

Vanellope's teasings were starting to get under the giant's skin, and he was ready to walk off into the distance to pummel a jawbreaker before he lost his temper. He removed his hand from his mug and clenched his fist as tightly as he could, preparing to walk away from the situation. When she saw him turn his back away from her, the girl ceased her laughing and walked around to face him.

"Look, big guy", she said, trying to make herself sound more serious, "my point is... You really should talk to Autumn. From what you told me, it sounds like she likes you. Why leave her hanging? You should go check out her game and get to know her better. You always told me about making new friends, so I gotta return the favor."

The man looked down at her, softening his expression. It sounded like to him that she really wanted him to become friends with the new character, but he was so unsure of himself that he really didn't want to. But for the kid's sake, maybe he should give it a shot. After all, Autumn did seem pretty nice, even though she was a bit on the skittish side. He didn't have it in his heart to turn away his promise of seeing her again, so he ended the debate with himself and gave in.

"Alright", he announced, "I'll go to her game... Tomorrow night, when the arcade closes again."

Vanellope patted Ralph on the shoulder and said, "There ya go, I knew you could do it!"

"Yeah, but I hope it goes well", he grumbled.

"Sure it will! She'll be totally blown away that you're a knight _and_ you got your own kart! Oh, and don't forget to tell her that you have a super awesome friend that's a president."

Wink.

"Trust me, I won't, Vanellope."

"Maybe someday you'll have the guts to invite her here and I can actually meet her."

"Yeah."

Ralph trudged back to his kart so he could take it around the practice course. However, he wasn't sure how well he would drive now that he had gotten all flustered, thanks to Vanellope bringing up _her_ again. He did have to wonder how she would react if he told her about all this. Based on his assumptions, he figured that she would be very impressed. Then again, she could have been impressed by anything. The giant sighed and turned the ignition on, waiting for Vanellope to get back inside. Once she did, he started to take off down the course, emptying his mind of all his worries just for a moment.

However, his mind started to play tricks on him as he started to see the president disappear and the gardener reappeared in her place. She smiled at Ralph as he drove, causing him to blush, smile and laugh awkwardly. "Autumn" responded by putting her hand on her mouth and letting out a giggle. The thoughts continued as he started to imagine showing her great stunts that he usually saw Vanellope do. He was in a race of his own, and he was in the lead blowing the competition out of the water.

The next thing he knew, he was at the finish line, getting a trophy for his hard work, "Autumn" standing by his side and giving him a kiss on his cheek. What he wasn't aware of was that the whole time while he was driving thinking of all this, he had went completely off the track and into a giant puddle of chocolate pudding. When the wrecker finally came to his senses and realized what was going on, he jumped out of the kart and tried to get it out.

"You big dummy!" Vanellope shouted, "you could've killed us!"

"My mind drifted off I'm sorry!"

"Yeah, thinking about your_ girlfriend_", the girl said as she watched Ralph get the kart back on the road with ease.

"She's not my girlfriend", he retorted.

Vanellope gave him a raspberry. "Not yet, anyway."

Ralph rolled his eyes and started to drive towards the rainbow bridge. His brain was starting to feel like it was splitting in half, and all he wanted to do now was get in his bed and go to sleep. He was certainly happy that he was made a knight and he got a kart from his friend, but all this excitement in one day had tired him out quickly. Vanellope noticed that he was riding to the exit of the game and asked him why he was leaving. Ralph told her that he was exhausted and wanted to go back to his game.

His friend was disappointed about it, but she understood that his tiny brain most likely had trouble processing everything, to which the man responded with a mumble of denial. He got worried that he started to daydream while he was on the practice course before, so he had to get to bed soon before he really caused an accident. Getting to the exit of _Sugar Rush_, Ralph parked the kart and got out, giving Vanellope a fist bump before getting on the train out of the game.

"I'll see ya later, Stinky!" she called out, "And you better tell me how your date with Autumn went!"

"It's not going to be a date!" Ralph shouted back to correct her, "Just a 'welcome to the neighborhood meeting', is all."

"Whatever you say, Chumbo."

- 0 - 0 - 0 -

The train going into Fix-It Felix Jr. came to a halt at its stop. Ralph squeezed out of the car and starting walking through the game to his home in East Niceland. It wasn't much compared to the nice apartment buildings that made up most of the town, but he built it himself and he was proud of it anyway. Of course, Felix gave him a hand and offered to fix anything that he happened to break, no matter how big or small. He had to hand it to him, the guy was generous.

Suddenly, he started to worry about his meeting with the character in Spring Fever again. He wasn't sure if he should tell Felix or the Nicelanders about meeting her. Vanellope already gave him a hard time about it, and he really didn't want anyone else to find out. Ralph decided that he was going to stay quiet about her until he was ready to spill the beans... Though he was sure that President Fartfeathers was going to blab to everyone. He sighed and walked across the bridge towards his house.

"Howdy, brother!" He heard an all too familiar voice call out of a sudden. He turned around and saw Fix-It Felix himself standing a few feet away. He must have seen Ralph walk by and happened to come out of the apartment building when he noticed.

The hair on Ralph's skin started to stand on end and feeling of dread starting to come over him. He hope he didn't hear him mumbling to himself, so he started to quicken his pace in the other direction. Felix started to follow him and Ralph practically started to run when he noticed this.

"Ralph, what's the matter?" he called out.

He continued to run until he got inside of his house, slamming the door behind him. The handyman stood there and starting knocking. Hearing him say his name over and over, Ralph ignored him as he sat on his chair in his living room and stared at the wall.

"Ralph, please open the door! I'm starting to become concerned!"

The wrecker started to become irritated with Felix's knocking, so he gave in and opened the door. He loomed over him with a scowl on his face, causing the smaller man to take a step back so he could have some breathing room. "I just got back from _Sugar Rush_, and I'm exhausted, so I need sleep. That is all."

He tried to close the door, but Felix held it open. "Oh no you don't, mister! Something else happened, didn't it? I'm not going to leave until you tell me what's got you actin' squirrely!"

"Nothing squirrely here", Ralph replied tartly.

"I can look at your face and tell that you're hiding something."

"I'm not hiding anything." Ralph glanced to the side.

"A-_HA_! You side glanced! Now I _know_ you're fibbing!"

Ralph knew that he didn't want to continue this silly banter any further, so he decided to give in. "... Okay, okay! Something else _did_ happen!" He let Felix inside of his house and offered him to sit down on the chair across from him.

"Alright, then", the fixer said, "what happened?"

The larger man was silent for several moments, trying to gather his thoughts for what he was about to say. After taking a breath, he told the truth. "... On top of visiting Vanellope today... I..."

Felix leaned in with anticipation. "Yes, brother, go on?"

"... I, uh..."

He leaned in even further.

"... I..." he mumbled the last three words in his sentence.

"Pardon?" Felix asked.

Ralph mumbled again.

"I'm sorry, Ralph, you're going to have to—"

"I MET THIS GIRL, OKAY?!" The giant bellowed.

Felix jumped out of his chair at his sudden outburst, and when he recovered his looked at him and said, "... You did?!"

"Yeah", the bad guy growled, "and the kid convinced me to go meet her in her game tomorrow night."

The shorter gentleman stood up and patted Ralph on the shoulder. "That's great, brother! What was this gal's name, if you don't mind me asking."

"Autumn", he answered, "she from this game called_ Spring Fever_."

"Oh, that just got plugged in today, didn't it?"

"Yeah. I had to help her find her way around Game Central Station since she was standing in the middle of the crowd like she had no idea of what she was doing."

Felix smiled wide. "Well I'll be dipped! What a way to make our new neighbor feel welcome!"

"At least I'll have something to talk to her about", Ralph added, wanting to change the subject as fast a possible.

"Oh?"

He remembered the pins that Vanellope had given him earlier and took them out of his pocket and gave them to Felix. "Vanellope made these. She said that she's made you and the Sarge honorary knights of _Sugar Rush_."

The man pointed to the pin attached to his overall strap. "I got one too. _And_ a kart! How about that?" He gave his friend a huge smile, one that Felix wasn't used to seeing that often.

"Wow, that's pretty swell!" Felix said, putting the pin on his cap, "congratulations!"

"Yeah..."

"... So, um, Ralph... I wish you good luck on your date tomorrow."

"It's not a date", Ralph snarled.

"Oh dear", Fix-It said in a worried tone, "Sorry for making accusations, Ralph."

"Don't worry about it. I'm just... I dunno."

"Hm?"

Ralph leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. "I'm worried about what's going to happen. I'm not that good with women, so who's to say I'll end up doing something stupid to upset her?"

"I don't think that will happen, Ralph", Felix consoled his friend, "you'll be fine."

"I hope so."

"If she has any amount of decency in her, she won't make you feel bad."

Ralph looked down at his hands and frowned. "... She said my hands were scary."

"I'm sure she didn't mean to offend you", his friend assured him.

"Yeah, but it's still a sensitive thing for me."

The fixer stood up and sat next to Ralph. "You oughta tell her that, then. The most important thing about starting a new friendship is to be honest."

"I was honest with her before", Ralph said, "I told her about what I did in this game. She seemed to take it... _Okay,_ I guess."

"That's good! Just keep doing that and everything will be peaches and cream."

"Peaches and cream... Right."

An awkward silence followed. It felt weird that Felix was trying to give Ralph advice like this, but he knew that he was trying to help like he always does with everyone. All he could think about was not making himself look like a fool in front of Autumn in _Spring Fever_. The last thing he wanted was for him to cause something in the game to go haywire and put it out-of-order. Ralph's anxiety started to go up at the thought and he stood up and started to pace around the room.

"This is going to be a disaster", he said, "I should've never agreed to this. I should've just kept walking and pretended that she wasn't there. I should've—"

"RALPH!"

He stopped dead in his tracks when he heard Felix's voice shout at him.

"... I'm sorry, brother, but you're overreacting to all this. You're going to be fine, darn it!" he put his foot down. "You need to relax and not think of the worst. You have to be positive."

Ralph laid back down on his couch, this time face down on the cushion and moaned in self-pity.

Felix shook his head. "Don't give me any of that... You're going to that game tomorrow, and you're going to _radiate_ confidence!" he held out his hands wide.

The wrecker rolled over and didn't respond.

"Oh, Ralph..."

The fixer began to head for the door, clearly getting the hint that his larger half didn't want to speak any longer. Before he walked out the door, he tipped his hat and said, "I'm heading back to the penthouse to get some shut-eye. Gotta be up bright and early!"

When he heard Felix close the door, Ralph sat back up in the chair and put his head in his hands. He couldn't remember the last time he was so worried about something. Ralph stood up and started walking to his bed, his tired body practically screaming for his warm blankets and soft pillows. However, his mind was overflowing with thoughts so much that he didn't think that he was going to be able to sleep. There was no way he was going to get through the night like this. Normally when he couldn't sleep, he would count backwards, so he decided to try it once he got under his blankets.

_"Ten, nine, eight, seven... Six... Five..."_

Yawn.

_"... Four... Three... Two..."_

Ralph closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. His mind was empty as he slept this time, only thinking of counting numbers. Soon he started to dream of his old home in the forest, with his stump covered in moss and creeping ivy. He saw himself climb out of the stump and walk towards a small pond. Ralph looked down and saw his reflection in the water, then reached down and swirled the water around as if he were bored. Ralph stayed like this for a while until he heard grass rustling nearby. He turned his head and saw Autumn sitting next to him, looking forward into the distance. She didn't move from her spot when he got up and tried to say something to her. It was as if she didn't know he was there.

He kept saying her name over and over, but she wouldn't listen. After a while her image faded away and Ralph started to panic in the dream trying to get her back. Things started to go down from there as not only did she start to fade, the entire landscape started to go with her, leaving Ralph in a whitewashed wasteland. The wrecker walked around trying to find a way out, calling out someone's name... Anyone's... But he was stuck. He was trapped in this void and there seemed to be no way out. When he felt as if he lost all his hope, he fell to his knees and started to cry.

The wrecker sat up with a jolt and gasped. He looked around to get his bearings and realized that he was back in his bed, safe and sound. It didn't stop him from the bewilderment that he was still feeling. "Where the heck did that dream come from?!" Ralph got up and went into the bathroom to splash cold water on his face. After he did that, he looked into the mirror and stared into his own eyes. He could see how tired he was, but also the anxiety that was pouring out of him. He had never had a dream like that before, and he wasn't sure why it was happening now. Was he really_ that_ worried about meeting Autumn tomorrow? He thought about reconsidering the visit, but he had promised Vanellope that he would go, and even Felix was encouraging him. Ralph didn't want to let them down, so he decided that he needed to just deal with it and go. Maybe Felix was right—things might turn out to be peaches and cream and he'll make a new friend. And if things went wrong... Well, at least he tried.

"Peaches and cream", Ralph said to himself like a mantra, "It's going to be peaches and cream..."

He took a deep breath and then walked back into his room to try to sleep again. The wrecker tried to think of things to help him relax before he drifted off. Funnily enough, he thought of peaches and cream. Nicelander Mary made a pie with peaches and cream, and it looked delicious. It was sitting on the window sill of the apartment building, waiting for someone to eat it. He grabbed hold of it and stuffed it into his mouth happily. To him, it was the best pie he had ever eaten. The sweetness of the peaches complimented well with the cream, and the crust was simply divine.


	4. Nicelander Gossip

_**Chapter 4: Nicelander Gossip**_

"Ugh... Talk about a rough night", Ralph said as he sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes. He looked at his alarm clock while wishing that it wasn't so close to opening time. The wrecker's mind had been filled with anxiety and anticipation through most of the night, and all he wanted to do was stay in bed and not have to worry about it. Pushing aside his desire to go back to sleep, Ralph got up and got himself ready to head out to the apartment building to wait for the first quarter alert of the day.

He thought about what he was going to possibly do as a knight for_ Sugar Rush_. Vanellope probably wanted him to just play her bodyguard, which he already did for her, but now he had a real title and he had to take it a little more seriously. Ralph hoped that he would be able to live up to his friend's expectations and do what knights do. There was also the thought of visiting that new game, which he felt even less at ease about. He didn't expect to actually agree to do it, but Vanellope was persistent, so there was no way he could say no to her.

Ralph didn't want to go into _Spring Fever _unannounced, but he didn't think that he would find Autumn in Game Central Station anytime soon. She seemed so overwhelmed while she was walking around it with him, and he thought that she was going to kiss the ground when they finally found her portal. He chose to save his plan of action for when the time came, since he really couldn't decide on what to do in that moment. For now, he wanted to focus on his job as a bad guy and getting through the day making the gamers happy.

Upon getting across the bridge from East Niceland over to the Niceland Apartments, Ralph could see the Nicelanders gathered around the building gossiping like they always did. To most of Game Central Station, they were considered the biggest blabbers around. For whatever reason, the diminutive people seemed to love talking about other people's business, and Ralph didn't like it one bit. He preferred to keep out of the affairs of others, but sometimes he would accidentally stumble upon a conversation that wasn't meant for his ears.

But it was a different story if they happened to be talking about him.

The demolisher perked his ears when he heard Gene speak of his name among a group of other male Nicelanders. He was so tempted to find out what they were talking about, but he was sure that if they noticed, they would lower their voices so that they couldn't hear. Ralph stood nearby at a safe distance and looked off into the distance to make himself look innocent while they continued to talk.

"... Felix told you _what_, now?!" Norwood asked with a hint of skepticism in his voice.

Gene took a sip of his martini before he answered. "Yeah, I'm just as shocked as you are! Not only did he and Sergeant Calhoun get knighted by that girl from _Sugar Rush_... Ralph did too!"

"Not really surprising", Don added, "she's his best friend, isn't she?"

"W-Well, yes! But I don't think he's knight material."

"Yeah, but you gotta admit that what he did was pretty heroic", Roy rebutted. "We could've been toast if he didn't find a way to stop those cybugs!"

Norwood nodded in agreement. "Quite so. As much as he can get under our skin, he really comes through in a pinch."

Gene grumbled and looked away from his friends, not wanting to add anymore to what they said. They all tried to get along better with Ralph after the _Sugar Rush_ incident, but he was stubborn and didn't want to admit that what they were saying was right. The best he could do was let them think what they wanted to think and try to be on his best behavior for Felix's sake. Gene certainly didn't want to upset his superior, so he tried to keep his comments about Ralph to a minimum when he was around. However, he was over on the other side of the building talking to Mary, so he thought he and his posse would be safe for now.

The wrecker sighed and rolled his eyes at the group and began to walk away to meet up with Felix. The closer he got and when the two characters that he was approaching saw him, Mary covered her mouth and looked as if she was trying to hide something. The handyman looked behind him and started to look nervous when he saw Ralph walking towards him.

"O-OH! Hello, Ralph!" Felix stammered, "I-I, um... Good to see you, brother!"

Ralph raised his eyebrows and glanced over at Mary, who had a nervous smile on her face.

"Top of the morning!" she said in a strained happy tone.

"... Are you guys okay?" the giant asked. He was started to get freaked out by how his shorter counterparts were acting.

The fixer started to get even more fidgety. "Yes, everything's fine! Nothing's going on here, no siree!"

Ralph wasn't going to believe that for a second... Felix wasn't getting all jittery and nervous for no reason, and he wasn't sure why Mary was in on whatever they were hiding. Before he could open his mouth to respond, Deanna appeared from behind him and joined the circle.

"Good morning, Ralph", she greeted, "Congratulations on becoming a knight for _Sugar Rush_."

The taller man scratched the back of his neck. "Thanks."

"Oh, and good luck on your da—"

Mary covered Deanna's mouth before she could finish her sentence, but it was already too late since Ralph already knew what she said. Felix walked towards him and tried to calm him down as his fists were trembling. He shot a glare at him, his temper about to boil over from his comrade telling everyone about his plans.

"FELIX!"

"I only told Mary and Deanna, I swear! They saw me up late worrying last night, and they asked me what was going on... So I told them that I was worried about you and your new friend."

"... You didn't tell Gene or anyone else about this did you?!"

Felix took his cap off. "No, the only thing I told him was about us getting those pins from Vanellope... And that's all!"

Ralph began to huff and puff like a child having a tantrum, which made the characters in the game get on edge. The Nicelandettes tried to soothe him the best they could, but he was beyond upset at this point. Everyone else had noticed what was going on and came over to watch Ralph have a meltdown. It wasn't pretty when it happened, but it was like a trainwreck to the Nicelanders; it was something that they couldn't look away from.

"What's gotten him all riled up?" Don asked Mary.

"He's angry at Felix for telling Deanna about meeting his new little lady friend."

Out of nowhere, Gene started to burst out laughing. "You're kidding me!"

"No, she's telling the truth", Felix corrected, "Ralph met the character from _Spring Fever_ yesterday, and he's planning to visit her after work."

The female Nicelanders started to murmur "aww" and giggle softly among themselves, which made the giant's face turn redder than it already was from his frustration. Ralph stood there and mentally begged for a player to put a quarter into the arcade machine so they could start a game. However, he knew that the Nicelanders were persistent and they were never going to stop asking him questions, so he might as well give in.

Norwood looked at Ralph and asked, "What is her name?"

"Autumn", he confessed.

"How did you meet her?"

"I saw her in the middle of Game Central Station... She was just standing there helpless. I felt bad, so I went over to help. I ended up taking her back to her port before heading to _Sugar Rush_ to see Vanellope."

"I bet she was scared out of her wits", Gene said, taking another sip of his martini, "a big palooka like you coming out of nowhere... Good grief!"

Mary shot him a glare that made him recoil.

"Sheesh, can't anybody take a joke around here?" he grumbled.

Ralph folded his arms and gave Gene a glare. "Yeah, she was scared of me a little, but she loosened up by the time we went our separate ways." He puffed his chest out at him to prove his next point. "In fact, she said she wanted to see me again!"

"Oh, so she _wanted_ you to come visit?"

"Well... Autumn didn't ask me to come. Vanellope insisted that I see her in her game, so..."

"You're going to take a little girl's advice and barge into a game you know nothing about?!" Gene protested.

Felix stepped in between the arguing men and tried to calm them down. "Now, now, let's not jump to conclusions, Gene..."

The Nicelander looked at Fix-It and gave him an unsure look. "Felix, you don't know what he could do in there! What if he breaks something and causes major damage?!"

"Then I'll go in and fix it, simple as that."

Gene stepped away from Ralph in defeat and headed back inside of the apartment to get ready to be thrown out the window like he does at the beginning of every game session. Everyone else looked at Ralph for his reaction to what had just happened. All he could do was smile at Felix sticking up for him and giving a little thumbs up. The handyman gave a sigh of relief and patted his friend on the arm in reassurance.

"Thanks Felix, I appreciate it", Ralph said.

"No problem, brother", Felix replied with a smile, "he really needs to stop worrying so much."

The other characters nodded in agreement and offered their best wishes to Ralph. They felt bad that the wrecker had gotten upset about them finding out about his visit to _Spring Fever_, but Felix wasn't aware that he didn't want anyone to know about it. He gave him another apology to which Ralph shrugged off, telling him that he should've told him that he didn't want him to tell the Nicelanders. The diminutive characters promised that they wouldn't tell anyone in Game Central Station about it, which made Ralph feel a bit better. Even though they were considered the biggest gossips around, the Nicelanders seemed willing to respect his wishes in not letting anyone outside of the game know.

"I just don't want anyone to get ideas", Ralph explained, "I'm already nervous enough about being seen going into the game."

"Nobody's going to care about what you're doing", Deanna said, "... Well, maybe except the Surge Protector."

Ralph groaned at the thought of being stopped in front of _Spring Fever_ by the spectacled blue man. He knew that it was totally in the realm of possibility that he would question him about why he was going into a game that had just been calibrated into the terminal. It was already bad enough that Surge seemed to have an eye out for him when he had the chance to give him a security check. The group tried to eases his mind by saying that it was just his job to stop everyone, and that it was especially important for new games. Nobody knew what it could contain and he had to make sure that anyone going into the game wouldn't bring anything dangerous inside.

After agreeing that Surge was just going to do his job, the ladies gathered around Ralph and began to ask him about what Autumn was like. He was nervous to say anything since he honestly didn't know her that well. The demolisher did the best he could and told them that she was skittish and didn't seem to be used to being around a lot of characters. It was understandable for them because most of the new arrivals responded to the hustle and bustle of Game Central Station the same way.

"She'll get used to things once she's more familiar with how things work around here", Mary said, "but I think you made things easier for her when you helped her find her game yesterday."

"Probably", Ralph responded modestly, rubbing the back of his neck. "It just didn't feel right for me to just walk away while she was standing in the middle of the station."

The lady Nicelanders looked at him in adoration, commending him of how noble he was for helping a lost character back to their game. Of course, they had to add that Gene was full of it and Vanellope knew what she was talking about when she made Ralph a knight. The wrecker's face turned red out of embarrassment and Felix and the gentleman Nicelanders chuckled at how they were treating the bad guy of their game. They were the most fearful of Ralph in the past, but as time has gone on, they really grew to like him and even began to find him adorable. Hearing about this latest deed that he had done had made them fawn over him even more.

"Did Autumn tell you at all about what _Spring Fever_ is like?" Mary continued.

"It's a platformer like our game", Ralph answered, "but she lives on a farm and has to protect it from animals that try to ruin it."

"Oh, that sounds like it's a tough job."

"Yeah, it seemed like it to me. She pulled a shovel out on me, so I figured that she meant business."

Everyone gasped and a few characters asked if he was alright. Ralph said that he had a few whelps from where she whacked him, but he was going to be okay. They sighed in relief and said that they were glad that she didn't do any serious injury to him. The man agreed that she could've gotten herself in trouble if she did. He went on to say that she was afraid of him at first, but by the end of their time together she started to get used to him a little. Ralph wasn't sure if she totally trusted him yet, but he wished to gain it after visiting her tonight. Vanellope had sensed that Autumn wanted to like him, but Ralph needed to not be a selfish diaper baby and get the courage to try to become friends with her. The group went on to say that once Ralph had earned Autumn's friendship, they wanted him to invite her to the game because they were curious about her game and they wanted to see her for themselves.

"I don't think we should be rushing him into anything", Felix said, "when he's good and ready to do that, he'll bring her over."

"Way too soon", Ralph responded in agreement, "I think we need to just let things go for a while and see where things end up. I'm not sure if this will even work out, but... Well, I'm trying, at least."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, dear!" Mary scolded, "if she trusted you enough to help her back home, then I think she'll be able to become friends with you."

"I guess you're right... But she just seemed so... I dunno, maybe I'm just thinking too much."

The fixer patted Ralph on the back. "It's gonna be alright, brother. Let's just get through the rest of the day and see what happens when the arcade closes. We can talk more about this then, okay?"

"Yeah, sure", the giant sighed, "I'm getting sick of talking about this anyway. My head hurts..."

Right after he said that, a guy that looked to be college-aged walked up to the console and placed a quarter into it. During this time of the day, while the kids were at school, Litwak's didn't get that much business outside of some older patrons. It didn't matter to the characters, however, since any player was good enough for them. Once they got the message that a game was requested, everyone got into their positions and allowed the player to go through the game as normal.

Ralph was flinging his bricks faster than normal, which confused the gamer. "Weird, I don't remember the first level being _this_ hard!"

Luckily, he was pretty experienced with_ Fix-It Felix Jr. _so he was able to guide Felix past the bricks and get to the windows quickly. It was an intense game like he hadn't had in awhile, however, and he had to really be on his toes. The wrecker felt so relieved to let all of his frustration out that he had the biggest smile on his face. None of the other characters noticed it, but the gamer thought he was seeing things when he saw Ralph almost laughing as he was doing his damage.

"Woah, dude", he said, "you're gettin' a little crazy there!"

Mr. Litwak walked over when he saw the gamer talking to the console, thinking that something was wrong. "You doing alright there, Danny?"

"Ralph is going crazy!" Danny answered as he turned his head away from the game, "this is only the first level and he's just _wailing_ on me!"

The arcade owner observed the boy play the game, but he didn't see anything out of the ordinary since Ralph had become aware of what he was doing and toned himself down so he wouldn't cause the game to get put out of order. "Hmm, are you sure you just aren't that good at this game?"

Danny looked back at the screen and noticed that Ralph had gone back to his normal pace. His mouth hung open as he tried to say something, but nothing would come out. Litwak sighed and suggested that he probably shouldn't stay up so late at night or he wouldn't be seeing such things. The player shook his head and told himself that he should lay off the breakfast burritos before bed. He played the game until he lost all of his lives, then he walked off to play _Hero's Duty_. Once they knew for sure that Danny was gone, the characters of _Fix-It Felix Jr._ broke character and waited for the next quarter alert. Felix couldn't help but chuckle at Ralph for giving Danny a hard time.

"I haven't seen you that fired up in a while, Ralph", he said.

"I feel a lot better, I'll tell you that!" Ralph replied, holding his fists in the air. "Wrecking never felt so good!"

"Glad you're feeling better! I just hope you don't tire yourself out before the day is over."

"Yeah, me too..."

Across the way, they noticed that another college student had just won a trophy in _Sugar Rush_ with Vanellope. She snuck a glance at Ralph and Felix and waved to them, which they returned to her. The girl mouthed, "don't pull a muscle, Stinkbrain!" Ralph reassured her that he's been doing this for thirty-one years and that he hasn't done it yet. Vanellope laughed silently and got back into character when the gamer turned his head back to her to start another race. Ralph and Felix made some small talk after that, discussing what they thought the rest of the day was going to be like. It was pretty boring without many customers in the arcade and they had more time to kill than the peak hours, so they had to do something to pass the time.

Ralph and Felix looked out the screen to get a look at the arcade again. The few patrons that were inside were walking around trying to find something to play. Danny had just gotten a game over on _Hero's Duty_ and mumbled something about the game being cheap.

"I hope Tammy didn't hear that", Felix said in a worried tone.

The hoodie-wearing young man wandered past _Fix-It Felix Jr._ but he wasn't going to give the game another go. He seemed to have spotted something that Ralph and Felix couldn't see and headed to it. "... _Spring Fever_? When the heck did Litwak get this?"

Felix cast a glance at Ralph to see how he reacted, and he stood there watching Danny go towards the game. He was nervous about what was going to happen, since this gamer had a tendency to complain about the games that he played. Based on what he knew about Autumn, she was probably going to take it personally and be upset by it. This was possibly going to affect his visit with her if something went wrong and he wished he could get a view of _Spring Fever_.

"Great, now this is going to make things worse", Ralph grumbled.

His comrade tried to ease his mind the best he could. "If something does happen, then you could try to make her feel better."

"Yeah, but I'm not good at consoling people."

"What about Vanellope? You're pretty good at bringing her back up when she's feeling down."

The wrecker sighed and thought about all the times when his little friend would come to him with her problems. He would do the best he could to help her, even if he thought what he said wouldn't be that comforting. Turned out that Vanellope took his advice to heart and really cared about what he had to say to her.

"The kid looks up to me, yeah", Ralph answered, "but I'm not sure if what I say to her would be as comforting to Autumn. I'll probably say the wrong things."

"Just do what you do with Vanellope", Felix said.

"I guess you're right. Hopefully I won't say something stupid."

"You won't! I know I've said it once, but I'll say it again... Everything is going to be fine and you don't need to worry."

Ralph nodded at Felix to let him know that he understood. The handyman seemed to always make him feel better with his encouraging words, even though on the inside he was still rather nervous. Perhaps when the activity in the arcade picked up later in the day, he was going to forget about worrying and he would be fine.


	5. Of Bloggers, Boxers and Billy Goats

_**Chapter 5: Of Bloggers, Boxers and Billy Goats**_

Danny never expected to see a _Spring Fever_ cabinet in person in his lifetime, and the thought of being the first in his online gaming community to play a copy certainly got him excited. He looked at the cabinet up and down, still not believing that he was seeing the real thing in front of him. The gamer took out his smart phone and started taking pictures of the cabinet and saved them so he could post them on his blog once he got the chance. He wasn't sure if any of his followers were going to believe that Mr. Litwak was able to get his hands on the game, so he decided to go over to the man himself and get his story on how he was able to get it. Getting proof of things in writing was something important for an aspiring gaming journalist such as himself.

Standing outside of her house on the title screen of her game, Autumn watched as Danny walked away to get the arcade owner. She had heard from some of the gamers since her arrival yesterday that_ Spring Fever_ was a sort of obscure relic in the gaming world. It was something that she wasn't aware of before since Carl's Diner didn't have many of people as knowledgeable about video games coming in as Litwak's. _Spring Fever _was there, of course, to give the kids something to do while their parents were waiting for their order to get made. Going from that to being given such a prestigious label, one would think it would have given her a massive ego boost, but she took the title rather modestly.

"It's almost overwhelming", Autumn murmured aloud. It was already a lot on her that she was getting way more attention than she did where she was first plugged in, but now everyone was putting high expectations on her. Most of the customers in the arcade didn't seem to be aware of the game being so rare unless Mr. Litwak told anyone that asked. Now with Danny taking these pictures and having plans to post them on his blog, he was going to give the arcade even more exposure.

Danny soon came back with Litwak, who told him to get in front of the arcade cabinet so he could get him in a photo with it. The older man did a simple thumbs up pose before the blogger set off the flash and got what he wanted.

"What's all this for?" the arcade owner asked.

"For my blog", Danny answered, "_Spring Fever_'s been a hot topic for a while now within my gaming community, and I've got to have proof that you've got the real deal here."

Stan smiled at him. He knew about the boy running a retro gaming site for a while now, and Litwak's Arcade had been featured there many times in the past. "I was wondering when you'd ask me about it!"

"I haven't had the time to head down here lately. College takes up a lot of time, y'know?"

"Most certainly!"

Danny opened the notepad application on his phone and prepared to write things down as Litwak answered his questions. "Anyway, I gotta ask... How did you manage to get this?! I mean, _wow_, this game is_ not_ easy to get by any means!"

"I'm still shocked that I found it", the other man laughed, "the things that you can find in the trading post!"

The gamer typed on his keypad as he was listening to what Litwak was saying. "Tell me about it. Did the seller tell you at all where they found it?"

"I think he it was in some old storage locker. Apparently Mr. Nichols is big on going to storage auctions, and he happened to get lucky and find the game in one of the lockers he won!"

Autumn's eyes went wide when she heard this, her mind giving her a quick flash of memory to the moment when _Spring Fever _was unplugged at Carl's. After retreating off-screen to prevent herself from being seen, she fell to her knees and put her hands on her head as she recollected the feeling of sheer terror as she was trying to run from the void that was trying to pull her in.

"_I can't... Not here, not now... I... I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"_

Without knowing it she screamed when the image of her being sucked into the black hole came over her. Danny and Litwak had heard the sound come from the game and jump up in alarm. They whipped their heads around to see what was going on.

"What the heck was that, Mr. Litwak?!" the boy asked in a panic, "I... I didn't know this game had voice samples!"

Stan looked at the screen and couldn't find anything that could have made the sound. He had heard his games make unusual noises before, but he didn't recognize that one. "Me either! Hoo boy, my heart is racing out of my chest! "

"Maybe I should try playing the game to see if it still works", Danny suggested, getting a quarter out of his pocket.

"Good idea!"

Soon Autumn began to hear the blaring announcement of a quarter alert and jumped up in alarm. She was still distraught but she couldn't let the game look suspicious and tried to act as normal as possible. The first level screen appeared and Danny began to take control of the gardener's movement. He was relieved to see that things seemed to be going smoothly as he guided her down the dirt path leaving her home and into the forest. Litwak watched him play through the level and tried to figure out what caused the sound.

"That's strange", he said, "maybe there's something wrong with the speaker."

"The sound is fine now", the gamer responded.

Mr. Litwak shook his head. "I think we might be losing our marbles... Like my nana."

Danny chuckled as he was trying to finish the level. He was finding the gameplay to be easier than that of _Fix-It Felix Jr._, but the platforming style was much different from it. Instead of everything occurring all on one screen, _Spring Fever _was a side scroller which had the player go through multiple screens to get to the end of the level. Once he had done that, Danny encountered the first boss of the game. He watched as the enormous bear came on screen and roared before given the chance to attack. The player hit the attack button over and over rapidly, causing Autumn to move her shovel so fast that it had become nothing but a blur. As quickly as it started the battle ended and the bear retreated back to the woods. When the score tally screen appeared, Danny took out his phone again and started typing furiously on it.

"What're you typing?" Mr. Litwak questioned.

Danny looked up from the screen. "My review of the game."

"What did you think?"

"The game is good, but in all honesty... It didn't really live up to the hype for me. I was expecting something more with the 'obscure game' angle."

The arcade owner frowned at his comment, but he knew that everyone had differing opinions.

"_Spring Fever _doeshavecharm with its colorful visuals and nice music", Danny continued, "but if I want to play a platformer... I would play _Fix-It Felix Jr._ It's one of the standards, you know?"

"Yes", Mr. Litwak said, "but _Spring Fever _is still valuable to me. I've been looking for it for years and I was really happy when I finally found it. It's exciting that I have them both in the arcade. Two great treasures of gaming history..."

While the game was still waiting for input to continue to the next level, Autumn smiled as she listened to him standing up for her game. Mr. Litwak was proud of having the game in his arcade and no matter what anyone said about it, he was going to treat it like the piece of history that it was to him. However, her curiosity went up when the second game was mentioned.

_"Fix-It Felix Jr."_, she thought, "_wasn't that..."_

Autumn began to have a flashback of her meeting Ralph in Game Central Station when she asked him what game he was from. She put her hand on her mouth and gasped inaudibly as soon as she realized what Danny was talking about. "... Ralph's game must be pretty important."

Danny finished typing on his keypad and put his phone back in his pocket. Having got what he wanted for his article on _Spring Fever_, he thanked Mr. Litwak before he walked away to play another game. The man looked back at the game and smiled at the character that was standing in her victory pose on the score screen.

"He can think whatever he wants", he said himself, "but every game in this arcade has at least some level of significance, no matter what they are. They all remind me of my memories of all the years I've been collecting games."

After Mr. Litwak had reset the game to go back to the title screen and he walked away, Autumn stood by and waited for the next gamer to stop by. She was still shaken up by the memory of her game being unplugged, but the intensity had worn off for the most most part. It helped to have been given the opportunity to get her anxiety out by using the raw force of her shovel. Ever since she first got plugged in at Litwak's, the pure joy that she felt of being able to have a second chance at life was suppressing her previous trauma of being taken from her old home. It wasn't until she heard the man mention the storage locker did the memories start to come back.

She went to the front porch of her small country house and sat on the rocking chair as she tried to relax. Looking down at her feet, she tried to think of more positive things. The little girl from yesterday, Suzy, was one of the best players of _Spring Fever_ thus far and still held the high score for it. Another group of boys that normally played _Sugar Rush_ took a liking to the game as well, being amazed that there was such an old game with a female protagonist. Mr. Litwak of course laughed and told them that there were plenty of them. Autumn cracked a smile and stood up to take a walk around her fenced in garden. It was okay for her to do this since she was programmed to walk around idly on the title screen of the game.

_"I can't let this keep happening"_, the gardener mused, plucking a pixelated daisy from the ground and sniffing it, _"I have to make sure that I don't get reminded of... That."_ She shook her head and sat down on the bench next to a bed of rose bushes, theme song of her game gently tinkling through the atmosphere.

- 0 - 0 - 0 -

"Hello", Ralph said as he paced back and forth on the bridge leading out of East Niceland, "sorry, to bother you, ma'am, but I just wanted to check on you." He stood silent for a moment, then shook his head and groaned. "No, that doesn't sound right."

Looking over the handrail of the bridge at his reflection in the water below, the wrecker sighed. He was trying to practice what he was trying to say to Autumn when he arrived in _Spring Fever_. After the arcade had closed, Ralph had decided to go into his house to try to rest before he left, but he was so restless that he started to pace around the landscape of _Fix-It Felix Jr._ The Nicelanders had already gone inside of the building so he thought he wouldn't be seen, but he couldn't help but occasionally look over his shoulder as he rehearsed his lines.

Ralph cleared his throat before leaning against the railing of the walkway, putting his hand on his hip to make himself look more confident. "Hi there, Autumn. I was just in the neighborhood, and I decided, 'hey, maybe I should stop by!' So, here I am. Wreck-It Ralph, in the flesh."

"Ralph?" a voice asked out of nowhere.

The giant spun around and saw Sergeant Calhoun and Felix standing a few feet in front of him. His heart sank to his stomach at the thought of them possibly watching him the entire time, but he tried his best to play off what he had just done. "Oh... Hi."

Felix looked at his co-worker awkwardly and fidgeted with his hands. "Tammy and I were just about to head out, and uh... We couldn't help but wonder what you were doing."

"Oh", Ralph replied, "I... I was just... Getting some fresh air!" He took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. "Yeah, that's good air. Heh heh."

"Oh, really?" Calhoun asked, "it sounded more like you were talking to yourself."

"No I wasn't!"

"I can see right through your lie, Wreck-It. It smells worse than your dirty laundry."

Knowing that he couldn't get away with any sort of excuses with the sergeant, Ralph caved in and admitted what he was doing. Besides, her glare cut through him like a knife and it was painful. "I was trying to think of something to say to this character that I'm going to meet tonight."

"That's all? Then why are you acting so strange about it?"

Ralph started to walk away from the couple saying, "there's nothing strange, not at all! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go to Game Central Station and—"

Calhoun stepped in front of him to block him from going any further. "Not until you tell us what you're hiding, soldier."

Before his co-worker could respond, Felix stepped in between them before things got out of hand. "Tammy, he's just nervous. Don't make it any worse for him."

Mrs. Fix-It looked down at her spouse, then back at Ralph. "What's there to be nervous about? A simple meeting shouldn't be _that_ difficult."

"Well, uh", the demolisher stammered, "the thing is, Sergeant Calhoun, I, uh... Who I'm meeting is from a new game called _Spring Fever_. I helped her find her way back to her game yesterday, so I decided that I was gonna see how she was doing."

Tamora cracked a very faint smile at his response. "I commend your concern for the rookie, but be careful out there. Uncharted territory can be dangerous."

"I don't think a game about gardening and farming would be _that _dangerous."

"I gave him a good pep talk last night", Felix said, "he'll be alright."

"I'll take your word for it, sweetums... But if I hear one thing about him causing something to wrong in that game..."

She got into Ralph's face fiercely. "He's gonna regret it."

Ralph stepped back to get some breathing room. He didn't think that Calhoun would react so intensely about this, but he supposed that she didn't want a repeat of what happened with _Sugar Rush_. He didn't want to relive that time in his programmed life and he didn't want to cause something to make something like that happen again. The wrecker was determined not to let anything go wrong and he was going to make sure of it. The armored woman gave him a dubious look, but her husband reassured her that he would go in if something goes out of hand. Feeling better after that proposition, she took Felix's hand and started walking away with him. Ralph followed a safe distance behind so he wouldn't intrude on the sweet nothings that they started to titter to each other. It was uncomfortable, but there was no other pathway he could easily take to get the train out of_ Fix-It Felix Jr._ so he just had to grin and bear it.

When they reached the trolley, Tamora and Felix got in first in the front seat while Ralph sat in the back. Ralph continued to watch them talk as the train started to move down the track and into the dark tunnel of the power cord. This gave him the opportunity to go over what he was going to say to Autumn again in his head.

"Hi, uh... It's me. You know, that guy that helped you the other day? No, that sounds stupid."

"Excuse me, miss, but did you want to see me again? Nuh uh, not that either."

Ralph went through several different conversation starters, but he didn't find any that he was happy with. "Aaaagh, I'm never gonna find the right thing to say!"

He put his hands in his lap and sat quietly for the rest of the ride, the Fix-Its still chatting about what they were going to do that evening. Ralph tuned them out and stared at the passing electricity running along the walls of the railway. He sat in thought for a while, wondering what was going to happen once he got into _Spring Fever._ The man didnt know what he was about to get himself into, but he hoped that everything would be okay and that he wouldn't do what Calhoun had feared. He was clumsy and that one wrong move could ruin everything. Perfection was on his mind now and didn't want anything less.

The wrecker's thoughts were broken when he heard the announcement that they had just arrived in Game Central Station. He squeezed himself out of the train and walked through the doorframe out into the terminal. Felix and Calhoun approached him and wished him luck during his visit.

"You can do it Ralph", Felix said, "you'll be great in there!"

"Keep your head on straight, Wreck-It", Tamora added.

"Thanks", Ralph answered before he broke away from them and walked through the crowd of the station.

Hurrying his pace through the terminal, Ralph looked around trying to the find the port for _Spring Fever_. He liked to think that he had a good memory and tried to recall what he had seen on the map of Game Central Station the day before and used that as a reference point. The wrecker passed by each door and checking their signs to make sure he didn't walk into the wrong game. When he saw _Sugar Rush_ in the distance, he was reminded that Vanellope wanted an update on how things went for him. Ralph kept it in the back of his mind and turned his head forward and went on with finding the port he was looking for.

It didn't take long before he spotted some characters from _Knockout King_ strutting past him. He recognized him from the times we went to _Tapper_ and would occasionally hang out with him and his group. They've offered him to join in on boxing matches in their game several times but he always declined, fearing that he would be at an unfair advantage because of his hands.

"Yo, Big Man", one of the boxers greeted him while slapping him on the back, "how's it hangin'? I was just gonna go grab the fellas from _Flaming Engines_ and get a few drinks. Wanna join us?"

Ralph shook his head. "Sorry, André, I can't. I'm actually out this way because I'm going to _Spring Fever_ to meet the character there."

The boxers looked at each other and "oohed" at him as if they were amazed by what he said.

"You got a date with her _already_?!" André asked, "wow, my brotha, you must got some serious swag!"

"No, no, no, you've got it all wrong", the giant tried to explain as he waved his hands in front of him, "I'm just going to check on her after I helped her back to her game yesterday."

At this point the group of characters were surrounding Ralph and asking him all sorts of questions about how he was able to win Autumn over to which he denying that he won anyone over. He was starting to get annoyed with the fact that everyone seemed to think that there was something romantic going on with him. Vanellope, Felix, the Nicelanders... Now these boxers were giving him a hard time about simply wanting to go to someone's game for a simple chat. Losing his temper, he shoved the men of him and started shouting at them that he wasn't trying to pursue her. They backed away and tried to get the innocent bystanders to stop staring at them.

"Take it easy, Big Man, we didn't mean no harm", they tried to tell him.

Ralph huffed and puffed air through his nose and clenched his fists trying to contain his temper. The boxers took at as their cue to walk over to the _Flaming Engines _port and leave the steaming man alone so they wouldn't get their teeth knocked out. Watching them walk away, he noticed the Spring Fever entrance right next door and moved towards it. He began to feel even more stressed out than he was before thanks to what had just happened. Ralph wanted so badly to just turn around and walk back to _Fix-It Felix Jr._ without going through with anything, but he was already here and he didn't want to have to waste a trip this far down the walk of the terminal. Besides, his conscience would eat him alive if he didn't go in. Bracing himself, he walked towards the _Spring Fever_ port and kept his eyes straight ahead as he walked through the entryway.

He barely got a foot through the door when a red force field went up and the Surge Protector materialized before him, adjusting his glasses and preparing to cross check the wrecker. "Name?"

"Oh, come on! Really?!" Ralph barked, "I don't have time to play twenty questions with you!"

"I just need your name, sir", Surge retorted.

"Wreck-It Ralph", he growled.

"And where are you coming from?"

"... _Fix-It Felix Jr._"

The blue man wrote some things down on his clipboard before he looked up and asked, "Anything to declare?"

"I have something to declare and I declare that you can kiss my—"

"Watch your language, sir, there are young characters in the vicinity."

"Just let me through, already!" Ralph growled

"I still haven't asked you if you have any paraphernalia on you", Surge said plainly.

The larger man opened his hands to prove that there was nothing on him. "There you go, nothing on me! _Now _can I go in?"

Feeling like he was done toying with Ralph, the Surge Protector gave him the go ahead to go inside _Spring Fever_. The wrecker sighed in relief when he finally got inside the port and tried to find the train to get inside the game proper. When he spotted the tractor pulled hayride, he lumbered towards it and got inside. Ralph fit comfortably much to his surprise after having to deal with most games' trolleys being much too small to accommodate his size. He sat back as the train carried him through the power cord with his anxiety slowly returning. Palms sweaty and his mind starting to reel, Ralph tried to relax himself by thinking about what his friends had told him. He convinced himself that there was nothing to worry about and that he was just overreacting to the situation.

The ride felt like it was lasting forever as Ralph was going through things in his mind, analyzing every moment that was planning to unfold. He was so consumed in his thoughts that he didn't notice the train come to a stop at it's loading point. The wrecker smelled the flowers in the air and came to his senses when he found himself finally inside of _Spring Fever_. Ralph hopped out of the hayride and looked around to take in his bearings. The game's landscape was beautiful, with pixelated grass all around him and seeing a few wildflowers in the distance. He spotted the forest that was to the left of the dock and suppressed the sad nostalgia that was threatening to wash over him. Ralph walked down the steps of the train deck and followed the dirt path leading away from the area to look for any sign of Autumn. So far, he noticed that the game was pretty quiet besides a few animals scattered around the fields and some airy 8-bit tune resonating through his ears. If he wasn't so nervous about meeting the heroine of the game, he would lay down somewhere and take a nap.

Ralph walked down the expanse of the trail and came to wooden signpost that was in between a crossroads reading "Game Central Station" with an arrow pointing in the direction that Ralph had just come from, and "Bramblewood Farm" in the other. The wrecker took a few steps ahead and looked over the hill and saw a one story house with some smoke coming out of the chimney, which told him that Autumn must be inside. He took a deep breath and carried himself down the road until his passed over the arching entrance that had the name of the farm written on it. Getting closer to the door, Ralph's heart started to beat so fast that he thought it was going to explode out of his chest.

"It's gonna be okay", he said to himself, "it's like everybody said... I'll be fine."

He glanced at the flower beds around her house and admired her work, handing it to her that she really seemed to live up to the title of the game. There were so many flowers that he surprised that they weren't covering the entire house. Just like in the fields, there were some animals lingering around the farm as well and paid no mind to him. Ralph didn't try to approach them since he didn't know if they were going to run away so he kept his distance. He went past them and got to the front porch of the house and prepared to knock on the door. The giant balled his fist and knocked with enough force for Autumn to hear him and not so much that he would knock the door down. Ralph stood at the door waiting for someone to answer, but nobody came. He tried again and still no response.

"She's probably scared to answer the door... Not expecting me here out of nowhere."

The demolisher waited patiently for the farmer to come to the door, but nothing was happening. Concerned, he stepped off the porch and searched the perimeter of the yard for her. Ralph called her name a few times but once again he didn't get any sign of her acknowledging him. He even went to the window and knocked, but still nothing. The bad guy was beginning to suspect that Autumn was deliberately avoiding him, but he wasn't going to leave the game and waste his time showing up and was going to wait all night for her to come out if he had to. There was a nice patch of grass nearby so he lied down and closed his eyes, putting his hands behind his head. He had to admit that the game had a pretty comfortable atmosphere to relax, feeling all the anxiety he had before wash away. However, he knew that it was going to come back once Autumn showed up so he enjoyed the peace while he could.

It didn't last long because he started to hear grass rustling nearby and he jumped up to see what it was. Ralph looked to the front door again, but Autumn wasn't there. He started to feel something on his pants leg and started to panic when he looked down and saw a goat trying to make a meal of them.

"Hey, get off me!" He shouted in alarm while trying to shoo the animal away. The goat got angry and started to chase him with his horns aiming right at his bottom. He did the first thing that came to his mind and fled from the scene, but it didn't make him any less noticeable since the ground was shaking under his feet as he ran and he was screaming. The livestock fled when they felt the tremors and ran inside of the shed nearby. Ralph kept running until he had tripped over a rock and fell face first into the ground. He cursed himself again as he tried to get up but he felt a sharp pain in his knee that made him lie back down and groan.

He heard the goat bleat at him before running away with his hooves clicking on the ground. Surprised that the goat didn't try to attack him, he turned his head to see what made the goat flee. Ralph wanted to turn his head to see what the animal had run away from but he was rendered immobile. The wrecker groaned again and put his head down and closed his eyes and hoped that everything that just happened to him was a dream. He opened his eyes back up and was disappointed that he was still there.

Ralph began to hear footsteps coming up the walkway and the feeling of dread started to watch over him. As if he were humiliated enough, Autumn was going to find him lying on the ground like a sack of bricks. The footsteps got louder and louder as they got closer and he braced himself for whatever was going to happen to him. When they stopped he felt someone start to shake him.

"OH NO", he heard Autumn shriek in terror, "PLEASE WAKE UP! PLEASE WAKE UP! I DON'T WANT YOU TO BE DEAD!"

"HOLD ON A SECOND!" Ralph shouted back before grunting in pain when he moved his leg, "I... I'm not dead! I just... Did something to my knee."

She helped him sit up without moving his leg too much before she asked him to roll up his pants leg to check the injury. Ralph's knee was scraped pretty badly and it was painful when Autumn tried to wipe the blood away with one of her spare handkerchiefs.

"We need to get you to the house right away to rinse this off", the farmer said as she took Ralph's hand and helped him walk towards the front door of her house. His size worried her since she thought that he wouldn't be able to fit through the door, but the door was barely big enough to get him in. The first thing she did was sit him down while she went to grab her first aid kit to nurse his knee back to health. While he waited, he stared at the interior of her house, which had a very quaint southern country feel. He had to admit that it was rather nice and he already felt like he was at home. However, the furniture was a bit small for him and was afraid to sit on any of it, so he resorted to sitting on the rug in the middle of the living room.

_"What a great thing to be happening now"_, Ralph mused, _"I almost get attacked by a goat, I trip over a rock and blow out my knee... Yeah, this is pretty much the worst day ever."_


	6. Making Sure You're Settled In

_**Chapter 6: Making Sure You're Settled In **_

Autumn returned through the doorway from the kitchen with her first aid kit in hand and set it down on the coffee table nearby. She took out a roll of gauze and ointment as she prepared to treat Ralph's injury. The wrecker squeezed his eyes shut and felt the sting of the remedy that the gardener was about to give him. He jumped a little when he felt Autumn's hands on his leg as she wiped away the excess blood before applying the medicine. After she wrapped the bandage around Ralph's knee she stood upright again and noticed that his eyes were still closed.

"I'm sorry if that hurt", she said apologetically, "but it's the only thing that works for scrapes like that."

"N-No", Ralph stammered as he opened his eyes again, "It's fine... Really. I'm used to getting banged up like this."

Autumn looked at him in concern. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"Yes, ma'am", he said, "I'll be fine."

The female character clasped her hands together before saying, "alright, then. But... What happened? You were lucky that Billy was nearby to get me or else it would've taken a longer to find you."

"Billy?" Ralph asked, tilting his head.

"My goat!" Autumn replied.

"Well", the giant began his story, "Billy decided that he wanted to have my overalls as a snack, but when I tried to shoo him away, he started to chase me! That's why I tripped over a rock and scraped my knee."

Billy's owner started bowing feverishly like she did during the first encounter. "I'm so sorry! Billy likes to eat everything and sometimes he doesn't realize that he's eating something that he shouldn't and-"

"OKAY", Ralph shouted as he raised his hand, causing Autumn to squeak and step back. "... Sorry, but it's like I told you before... You don't need to apologize for everything."

"But what about the 'dying outside of your game' thing?" she inquired, "you could've died and I could've gotten in trouble!"

He was glad to know that she was informed on the subject, but the bad guy needed to let her know that he was going to be fine and that she had to stop worrying. Ralph stood up to make his point, relieved to see that the pain had started to become more bearable. He looked down on the woman while she lifted her head to see his face. Their height difference made Autumn feel extremely intimidated since she only reached up to Ralph's stomach.

"Look", he began, "no scratched knee is gonna be enough to kill me. I'm a rather resilient guy, and, uh... I was kinda programmed to be thrown around, y'know?"

The woman put her hand on her head in confusion. "How? I thought _you_ were the one that threw people around."

"I only get to throw one person in the game, Big Gene. Don't let that name fool you though, he's actually rather tiny. He hangs out of one of the windows, and I just reach my hand in and..."

Ralph made a light tossing motion and laughed at little. Throwing Gene was his favorite part if his work day and he didn't hide it one bit. Autumn wasn't impressed by it, unfortunately, because she gave him a rather shocked reaction.

"That isn't very nice", she scolded.

The wrecker couldn't help but laugh again, this time at the gardener's comment. "I'm not supposed to be nice. I'm the bad guy, remember? Besides, Gene can be a real jerk."

Autumn was going to ask why he thought that way about the Nicelander, but she decided that it probably wasn't any if her business. Instead, she wanted to change the subject because frankly, it was getting a little awkward for her. Autumn didn't like hearing him talk about someone so rudely behind their back. She looked down at her hands and requested this, to which Ralph accepted and tried to think of something else to talk about. It became quiet after that except the sound of the game's atmospheric sounds. They didn't give each other much eye contact either, Ralph looking around the room awkwardly as he looked at the things on Autumn's shelves. The gardener had sat down in a chair and watched him to make sure he wouldn't break anything with his large frame.

"So, um", Autumn finally spoke up, "Ralph... Why did you come to my game in the first place? Was there something you needed?"

Ralph turned around to face her and answered, "oh yeah, that." he turned red and scratched his neck with his finger. "I, uh... Wanted to make sure you were settled in Game Central Station alright. After I helped you yesterday, I thought it would only be polite to check in."

"Thank you", she said graciously while bowing her head, "that's so kind of you!"

When she smiled at him Ralph couldn't help his cheeks feeling warm. He wasn't used to getting compliments from programs that he didn't know so he got a little flustered when it happened. The only thing he could do was mutter, "it was no problem, really."

Autumn stood back up and prepared to leave the room. "Ah, I almost forgot! Since you're my guest, I think it would be proper to offer you something to eat... Or a drink, whichever you prefer."

"Uh... Sure, I guess", Ralph said, "anything would be fine."

"Okay, I'll be right back!"

When she had left the room, the wrecker glanced around the room at all the gardener's belongings in her living room. There were pictures of people that he didn't recognize sitting on the tables, potted plants scattered throughout and other knickknacks that fit in with the southern country motif of the game. It made him feel comfortable and he almost felt as if he could blend in with the atmosphere, even though he was probably the largest thing within it now. He was surprised that he could fit inside of Autumn's house. All the stress that he had before seemed to dissipate, but he knew that there was still a lot more that he wanted to talk about with her. However, he wasn't sure where the conversation was going to take them next and he had to think of something to say. Ralph reached inside of his shirt and found Vanellope's medal, tracing around the letters like he always did.

He didn't realize that the farmer returned with a plate of tea and chocolate chip cookies for them to share. "I hope you don't mind these." She set them down on the table next to them, but when she noticed that Ralph didn't respond, she turned her head and saw Ralph looking at his memento. "Excuse me, but what is that you have there?"

The demolisher looked up when he heard her voice again and replied, "Oh, this thing? Um... It's something a friend gave me."

"I see", Autumn said with a nod, "it's nice to get gifts from your friends, isn't it?"

"Yeah", Ralph responded, "this is really special to me."

He took it off from his neck and gave her a closer look at the medal. She let out a soft "aww" at the message on it, but when she saw _To Stinkbrain _she gaspedin horror. The woman asked why his friend would call him such an insulting name and Ralph explained the best he could that calling each other childish things like that was their form of affection towards one another. Autumn was still confused by the name of it but she accepted it.

"She sounds very... Unique", she said.

"That's Vanellope for ya", Ralph laughed softly.

The gardener smiled and offered him the tea and cookies again, which he gladly partook in. He still wasn't totally keen on chocolate, but he didn't want to hurt Autumn's feelings so he ate some of the cookies anyway. Ralph continued to tell her about Vanellope, the medal and the Battle of _Sugar Rush_. He wasn't sure if she was totally following with what he was saying, but he felt that he had to let her know how important Vanellope was to her. If it meant that he had to go back to the beginning and recall all the important details, he was going to do just that. By the end of the story, Ralph felt like he had talked forever, but Autumn never moved from her seat and seemed genuinely interested in what he had said. He thought he could even see tears in her eyes.

"Sorry if that was too much", he apologized.

Autumn wiped her face and replied, "no, it's alright! That... That was _amazing_. You're a hero. I'm sure Vanellope is eternally grateful to you after you saved her game."

"Of course." Ralph plucked the pin from his overall strap and showed it off. "I got this as a token of her appreciation. It's a badge that proves that I'm an honorary knight of _Sugar Rush_, Sir Wreck-It Ralph."

She looked at the pin in awe and brought her eyes back to his. "Wow, that's _incredible_! So you're a good guy _and_ a bad guy at the same time now?"

"That's an interesting way to put it", he answered in a humored tone.

They took some more snacks and a few more sips of tea before they spoke again. Ralph had to admit that Autumn was pretty good at cooking, but it wasn't anywhere near Mary's level of skill. He thought about asking them to do a cook-off someday, but that was something for another time. He wasn't even sure if she was comfortable venturing out into Game Central Station again after yesterday's events. The wrecker thought of taking his new friend game jumping with him, but he had to make sure that she was ready for it. The last thing he wanted to do was rush Autumn into something that she wasn't ready for.

Ralph gulped and decided to ask since it might be worth a shot anyway. "Hey, uh, Autumn? Can I ask you something?"

The horticulturist darted her eyes him and said, "yes, of course."

"Since I told you about Vanellope and all", he trailed on, "how about I, uh... Take you to _Sugar Rush_ sometime?"

"Oh, I'm not sure", Autumn answered with uncertainty, "I got pretty scared in Game Central Station the first time I was there... It's such a big place, and I got lost, remember?"

"We'd go together", Ralph said.

She thought about it for a moment while she looked out the window with her teacup still in hand. "I really wouldn't want to be a burden to you, Ralph."

"No, you wouldn't, Autumn. Vanellope actually wants to meet you, so it won't be a problem."

"Really...?"

The giant nodded.

"Well, if it's okay with her... I guess I could go."

Ralph smiled when he got her approval. He was relieved that she was willing to go with him to Vanellope's game and he felt like he was starting to gain more trust from her. "Okay, then it's settled! I'll tell Vanellope that you're gonna visit with me one day. I guess I'll let her decide when she wants that to be... She is the president, after all."

Autumn smiled before putting her teacup down. "Okay, I'll be waiting for you then!"

"Yeah", he responded, "it'll be great."

The man turned his head to look at her knickknacks again. Some of the things she had looked handmade and he admired the detail on them. She noticed him looking at them and asked him if he liked them. He told her that she had a lot of interesting things displayed in the room and wondered if she had made them herself. Autumn was modest and said that she wasn't very good at making things. Ralph opened his hands to let her know that he knew what it was like to be clumsy with building things.

"I'm not a builder in the slightest", he said, "that would be Felix's job. I'm a wrecker. All I can do is wreck things."

Autumn flinched back and squeaked when she saw the full span of his hands in front of her.

"Sorry about that", Ralph sputtered, "I didn't mean to scare you again... Geez, I really need to start being more careful with my hands."

"It's okay", she answered, "I know you can't help it, can you?"

The wrecker shrugged. "I guess not."

"Programmed with large hands", the farmer mumbled faintly, "you could probably fit an entire person in them..."

"Hm?" Ralph asked, not knowing what she was saying.

She shook her head and replied, "never mind."

The two went silent while they tried to think of something else to talk about. Ralph had gotten out most of what he wanted to say, but he felt like he wanted to find more to talk about. He noticed that he had been mostly talking about himself most of the time during his visit, so he decided that maybe he should ask more about Autumn and what her game was like.

"Hey, I talked a lot about myself, so maybe I think I should let you tell me about yourself. That is, if you don't mind."

"Oh, sure!" Autumn said, "but I'm not sure of what I should tell you about."

"Hmm..." Ralph pondered for a second. "... You could tell me about how Game Central Station has treated you so far."

The lady put her hands on her cheeks as if she were embarrassed. "Actually", she confessed, "I... Haven't been out of _Spring Fever_ since yesterday."

"I see", the demolisher responded.

"I got really overwhelmed walking around Game Central Station to be honest", Autumn added, "I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to go out alone."

"You will once you've been here for a while", Ralph reassured her, "just remember what I told you before and you'll be fine."

"Oh! The map?" she inquired with a tone of realization.

Ralph nodded. "Don't forget to use it if you get lost again."

"Don't worry, I won't!" Autumn bowed and smiled at him.

He blushed and chuckled softly without realizing it. There was something about her smile that seemed to make him feel happy. Ralph had only known her for a short time, but Autumn was leaving a positive impression on him.

"Okay, then", he said after he decided to change topics, "perhaps you could tell me what's been going on in your game instead?"

"Umm..." the woman pondered and recalled what happened to _Spring Fever_ in the arcade thus far. "... Not much, really. I've had a few gamers come by and play. Some of them have been pretty good."

"That's good... And if you don't mind me asking, how old is this game? A lot of the textures in here look like the ones in_ Fix-It Felix Jr._"

"Oh, _Spring Fever_ was released on June 26, 1984."

Ralph smiled. "Ah, no wonder why I feel so at home! The 8-bit music I heard coming in should've tipped me off sooner."

"Your game is 8-bit too?!" Autumn asked excitedly.

"Yeah", he answered, "it came out two years before yours. Just had our thirtieth anniversary last year."

"Wow", she said, "congratulations! You must get a lot of respect from the other characters in the arcade, huh? This one gamer that played my game today seemed to think so."

"Oh? Do you remember who it was?"

"Um... It was a boy in a sweatshirt of some kind. He talked about something called a 'blog' a lot."

The man started to become nervous and scratched the back of his neck. "Yikes... Danny played your game?"

"So you know about him", Autumn replied with a frown, "he's kind of harsh, isn't he?"

"Yep", Ralph explained, "he critiques games for his website, apparently. Pretty much all the games in the arcade have been subjects of his reviews... Especially retro games."

"I've heard a few other gamers say that about _Spring Fever_", she replied, "is it a good thing?"

He nodded and said, "it means we're old but cool."

"Old but cool?" she parroted.

"Yeah."

The woman looked at him thoughtfully. "I'm not sure if I like being called old, but I can accept the cool part!"

"At least we don't age", Ralph chuckled.

Autumn nodded in agreement and poured herself more tea when the conversation didn't continue. Having her first guest over was more tiresome than she thought it would be, especially the fact that it was unexpected. It was a nice surprise, however, since she was starting to feel lonely. Many of the games in the arcade had many characters at its disposal and some of them were very close and spent time with each other, but_ in Spring Fever, _Autumn was the only character. Sure, there were the animals that she bopped as the players took her through the levels, but they couldn't exactly hold a conversation with her. As soon as she was done with her tea, the female program stood up and headed for the door.

"Would you like me to take you on a tour around _Spring Fever_?" Autumn asked, clutching the door handle.

Ralph stood up and stretched his limbs out after sitting for what felt like an eternity. "Sure, why not? My knee is feeling better and I'm stiff from sitting for so long."

"But it's only been about half an hour or so", she noted.

"I guess I don't like to sit for very long", he said sheepishly.

"Okay, let's be off then!"

She opened the door and let Ralph go first so she could help him out for when he got stuck in the door-frame. He seemed to get out with not much problem, but she had to get behind him and push him when he hesitated. After he regained his footing from stumbling, Ralph looked back at her.

"Wow", he laughed, "didn't think you could shove around a big guy like me_ that_ easily!"

"I battle bosses as big as you on a daily basis", she declared as a matter of factly.

Ralph's eyes grew wide at the thought of her taking down enemies as big as he is and made a mental note to himself that she is possibly a force to be reckoned with. There he was, watching her show him her various species of flowers and plants that she had in her yard, looking as sweet and innocent as can be... But somewhere within her code was a tough as nails heroine that was ready to whack someone over the head with the same shovel that she used to plant them.

After Autumn showed Ralph the flowers in the front yard, she took him around the backyard and let him see the garden there. There was a white picket fence that enclosed everything, a cobblestone path that lead around the perimeter of the area and the large variety of flowers that were scattered throughout. Pixelated butterflies were flying around them peacefully and looking for a flower to rest on. Autumn found her usual bench and sat on it, patting the space next to her as a gesture to let Ralph sit next to her. He obliged and squatted down without realizing that he had broken it upon impact of his rear and caused he and his companion to fall on the ground with the chair with a shriek. Ralph sat up clumsily and helped Autumn stand while apologizing profusely for breaking her property.

"Sweet Mother Hubbard, what have I done?!" he panicked. "I can get Felix to come over and fix this later, I promise!"

Autumn brushed the debris off her dress and looked up at him. "It's okay, don't worry about it!"

"You don't want the gamers to notice anything missing, do you?" he asked.

"No", she answered, "but it doesn't need to be fixed right away."

"But I'll feel guilty if I don't do anything about this!"

"... Alright, if you insist."

They ventured on away from the garden and went back to the front yard to visit the field next to the house where Autumn's farm animals were kept. She opened the gate and they went inside the large enclosure to see them. Some sheep and goats flocked over expecting their owner to give them a treat, and she did so by pulling some out of hammerspace. Ralph was mesmerized by how the animals behaved around Autumn, but he remembered that they were programmed to trust her since they were one of the things that she had to rescue during gameplay.

"Do you want to try?" the farmer asked and offered some of the treats to him.

"No, thanks", the wrecker declined, "I don't want to hurt them."

"You're just letting them eat out of your hand", she said.

The sheep and goats looked at Ralph expectantly which he couldn't turn away because of how adorable they were. He didn't know how much longer he was going to be able to take the cute "anime style" of this game. It wasn't like _Sugar Rush_ where everything was sickly sweet and in his face_. Spring Fever_ felt a lot more calm to him and it almost gave him a sense of nostalgia.

Ralph finally gave in and held out his hand. "Okay, just this once!"

Autumn poured a few treats into his palm and watched him try to give them to her livestock.

"Hey, uh", he stammered, "you want some of these?"

The creatures didn't seem scared of him and they approached him to take the food. Ralph laughed when he felt them lick his hand and involuntarily jerked his hands away, dropping the treats on the ground. They scrambled around them and ate them up rather quickly, then looked back up at the giant with their black-dot eyes expecting more. He turned to Autumn and motioned to her to give him more treats.

"Sorry, but I'm all out", she admitted sadly.

Her animal friends flocked away upon that declaration, leaving the two open to head to another part of the game. They ventured on out of the pasture and walked past some chickens and a pony to which Autumn greeted when she saw them. Ralph thought it was interesting that she spoke to her animals like they were humans, but then he realized that they were the only other characters in _Spring Fever_ that she could really interact with. She didn't seem to be lonely, however, which made him feel better about the situation.

Soon they found themselves near the dock leading to Game Central Station, but Autumn wasn't going to leave the game. Instead, she lead him down the opposite part towards the forest where the more dangerous animals of _Spring Fever_ lived.

"We have to be careful in here", she stated, "this is the scariest part of the game, and the animals here can get pretty nasty if we disturb them."

"Don't worry about me", Ralph said, "I've _lived_ in the woods! There's nothing in there that I couldn't handle!"

The gardener's eyes grew wide. "Oh, my, you're a mountain man?"

"Not really", he replied meekly, "I don't think _Fix-It Felix Jr._ has any mountains. Anyways, it's my programmed backstory that I'm from the forest. Lived in a stump and everything."

"That must've been a big stump", Autumn gasped in amazement, her mouth agape, "a REALLY big stump!" she stretched her hands out as wide as she could.

"Yeah, it's big", Ralph chuckled.

The pair turned their attention back to venturing through the woods, trying to be careful not to disturb the boss characters that resided within it. They were generally harmless when the arcade was closed, but they would become perturbed if Autumn came too close when they didn't want to be bothered. It was pretty quiet as they trekked except for the sound of crunching leaves beneath their feet, but Ralph stepped on something that caused a loud growling sound to emit into the air. He jumped back and the heroine of the game pulled out her shovel and stepped in front of him. Ready to strike whatever was threatening them, Autumn held up her gardening tool shakily, waiting for the offender to strike. The thing started to move, and out from behind the tree in front of them came a grumpy bear snarling at her angrily.

The bear didn't back down as it roared in her face, causing Ralph to get freaked out and stepped back to keep himself out of danger. Most female characters he had seen that were of Autumn's normal disposition would run away at the sight of a giant beast such as that, but she showed no fear as she dodged the bear's swiping claws and fought back with her weapon. The man observed the sparring in amazement, not believing that this tiny woman was able to hold her own so well against this enormous creature. The fight continued until the bear knocked Autumn to the ground and started lunging towards Ralph. Acting upon instinct he held out his fist and punched the animal in the face, causing it to stumble backwards and run away.

"RALPH!" Autumn picked herself off the ground and scrambled towards him in a frenzy. He looked at her like he had done something bad and put his hands behind his back.

"Autumn, I'm sorry, I-I—"

"YOU'RE INCREDIBLE!"

Ralph blinked several times in surprise. "W-What?!"

"You have amazing reflexes for such a big guy", Autumn praised, "that bear didn't even have time to react!"

"I hope I didn't hurt it too badly, though", he said, "I just punched it without even thinking..."

"Oh, he'll be fine!" she waved her hand downwards. "He's programmed to take a few hits!"

"Yeah", he answered, not knowing what else to say.

Autumn lead the way through the forest again and tried to find the way out. As they were walking, she talked more about Ralph's strength and how amazed she was that he was able to take the bear out with just his fist. Of course, the wrecker was modest and said that there were characters in the arcade stronger than him. She insisted that she hadn't seen anyone else in Game Central Station with hands as big as his. The statement caused Ralph to start to feel self-conscious again and frowned at her comment.

"Oh, I didn't mean it in a bad way!" Autumn squeaked, "I-I think they make you stand out!"

"They make me stand out alright", Ralph mumbled.

"N-No, I..." the farmer covered her face in shame and whimpered, "I'm so stupid! I've said all the wrong things!"

"Hey", he said, "you're not stupid."

"But I said something that hurt your feelings!" She looked up at him with tearful eyes.

The demolisher shook his head and sighed, as he wasn't sure of how he should handle things from there. All he could really do was try to tell her that he was used to people saying things about him. During the last thirty-one years of being in the arcade, there wasn't anything that he hadn't heard, so he was numbed by the comments by then. Ralph knew that Autumn had good intentions and that she didn't mean any harm in what she had said, but he wanted to let her know that there were some things that she shouldn't say to him.

"Autumn", Ralph started, "I do admit that some of the things that you said about me did hurt my feelings a bit, but... I guess I should've told you sooner that I was sensitive about certain things."

Autumn clasped her hands in front of her and nodded in understanding. "I think I should've known by the way you reacted to some things that I said... It's just that... I haven't seen anybody like you before."

"It's okay", he replied, "just try to be careful from now on, alright?"

"Uh huh", she said with a nod.

By the time they finished their conversation they had gotten out of the woods and were walking towards the train station. Autumn ran ahead of Ralph and stepped on the boarding platform. The wrecker trudged behind her and climbed the stairs to meet up with her.

"You want me to leave already?" he joked.

"No", she answered, "I just wanted to ask you something about the train station... Well, actually, about Game Central Station in general."

"Oh, uh..." Ralph looked at her befuddled. "What do you want to know?"

"Um..." Autumn wringed her hands together nervously. "... How do the trains work, exactly?"

He tilted his head in confusion. "Uh... You rode in it the other day, so you saw it, didn't you?"

"No, I don't mean that!" she pointed in the direction of the tunnel. "I mean... What _are_ those tunnels that carry my hayride to Game Central Station, anyway? There's sparks all around the walls... And they somehow lead to Game Central Station... What _is_ Game Central Station, exactly?" she put her hands on her head and swirls appeared in her eyes.

Ralph sighed and explained to the best of his ability. "The tunnels are the insides of the electrical cords that the game is attached to, and Game Central Station itself is a power strip inside the arcade."

"Oooh, okay", Autumn said in realization, "I think I understand now. I wanted to know because... Well... There wasn't a Game Central Station where I used to be plugged in."

"Wow, really?" he asked, "where you were before?"

The gardener froze and didn't answer him. She started to remember the flashback she had earlier and tried to fight back the tears that were threatening to come out. "I... I'm sorry, but I really don't want to talk about it."

"Okay, then", Ralph replied awkwardly, "so, uh... Anything else you want to ask me?"

Autumn shook her head.

"Uh..." the man stalled for several moments as he tried to keep the conversation alive. He was really curious about why Autumn's old place didn't have a Game Central Station, but it was clear that she didn't want to speak about it.

"What should we do now?" Autumn asked suddenly, causing Ralph to snap out of his stupor.

He scratched his head and looked around the game to see if there was any place that they haven't visited yet. "I'm not really sure... What do you think?"

She put her hand on her chin in thought. "I think we've seen most of what can be seen... The game isn't very big, you know."

"Maybe we should call it a day?" he asked.

"I think that might be a good idea." Autumn yawned while covering her mouth with one hand. "All that we did today really tired me out!"

"Yeah, me too", Ralph laughed.

"So... Do you want to come by again tomorrow? Or do you want to do something else?"

"Let's meet up in Game Central Station, then we can decide what we can do from there."

Autumn nodded and smiled. "Okay, sounds good to me!"

Ralph got into the back of the hayride and waited for it to take him through the tunnel out of the game. "I better head on out now... Thanks for having me in your game, Autumn. I hope I didn't overwhelm you too much."

"No, you were great!" she reassured him, "I enjoyed having you."

"Thanks", he said with a smile.

The farmer smiled back at him and giggled lightly until she was cut off by the sound of the train preparing itself to go down the track to leave. Ralph started to wave at her as he was disappearing into the tunnel, and when she recomposed herself after being startled at the loud sound, she waved back. He kept waving until he was surrounded by the darkness of the tunnel and he couldn't see Autumn anymore. Putting his hand down and turning his body forward in his seat, the wrecker sighed, glad that his first visit to _Spring Fever_ was a successful one. Granted his leg was wrapped in a bandage and he was going to have to explain that to his friends later, but he was glad that he went. He thought that Autumn was going to be upset at him for coming into his game without an invitation, but she seemed to be really excited about him being there. The only thing that was bothering him was when she didn't want to talk about where she used to be plugged in.

_"I really want to ask her about it eventually"_, Ralph thought, "_but I'm afraid of how she's going to react. When I brought it up, she seemed almost... Sad."_

Ralph sighed again and fidgeted with some of the straw in the hayride mindlessly. Even though Autumn was cheerful and polite with him during their time together, he sensed something about her that didn't seem right. He could tell that she was hiding something, but he wasn't sure of what it was. Just the way her eyes looked when they had moments of silence, staring out into space like she was deep in thought. Autumn was programmed to be a strong heroine that protected her farm and gardens from wild animals, but deep inside she was very sensitive. It was probably tough for her to transition to Litwak's Arcade as well with everything that was new to her, especially since she revealed that she didn't have a Game Central Station where her console used to be. Ralph shook his head and decided that he wasn't going to mention it to her until she was ready to talk about it.


	7. Hanging Out With the President

_**Chapter 7: Hanging Out With the President**_

_Sugar Rush_ Castle was buzzing with activity as usual when Ralph arrived. Some Oreo guards were wondering around the grounds outside the main entrance, bowing when they graced the newly appointed knight's presence. He waved back at the guards awkwardly when they opened the door for him and stepped inside the foyer of the castle. The wrecker headed in the direction of the Presidential Sweet after one of the cookies told him that Vanellope was there. No matter how many times he walked through the hallway to his friend's room he always got the feeling that it never ended. It seemed to go on and on, the glass windows reflecting light from outside on him and all the intricate murals on the walls of Vanellope's and the other characters of the game's likeness on the walls.

As he was trudging through the corridor he thought about what he was going to say once he got to his destination. Vanellope was going to bombard him with questions as soon as she got sight of him and he wanted to make sure he got all the basic facts ready for her. The man could already hear the little girl's voice ringing in his ears and shook his head. He wasn't sure if he was totally prepared to give her the whole story right after he just left _Spring Fever_, but Vanellope was the impatient type and demanded that he come to _Sugar Rush_ as soon as he left the other game. Ralph sighed and kept his eyes forward, looking all the way down to the end of the seemingly endless red-carpeted floor.

The hallway seemed to become quieter the further he walked, which meant that he was getting closer to Vanellope's room. Her guards didn't like to disturb her while she was in her chambers so they left her wing of the castle as quiet as possible. Of course, it didn't stay quiet for long because he starting hearing the bouncy Japanese pop theme of the game blaring in the distance the closer he got to the room. Ralph had become accustomed to the tune since the first time he had come to _Sugar Rush, _and even admitted that it was rather catchy.

The wrecker finally got to the door of Vanellope's room and knocked. He heard the music stop and the sound of a chair squeaking on the floor. Before he knew it the door opened and the president stood before him and peered up to see his face.

"What's shakin', Sir Fartsalot?" she said cheerfully, holding up her tiny hand for a fist bump.

Ralph returned the gesture and balled his fist and bumped into hers gently. "Not much, Lady Lintlicker."

The president starting rocking on the ball of her heels. "Not much, huh...? Then what's up with that thing wrapped around your leg?"

He watched her point downwards towards him, turning red-faced when he realized what she was referring to. When he didn't answer, Vanellope stepped closer and examined the cloth on his knee more closely. It was light pink with a flower pattern on it that looked very out-of-place on Ralph's person.

"Holy gobstoppers, it has blood on it! What did you do, Ralph?"

"I, uh..." he paused for several moments until he finished his statement. "... I tripped over a rock in _Spring Fever_."

She gave him a sly smirk. "Aww, Ralphie got a boo-boo?"

"It's not a boo-boo", Ralph answered with a straight face, "it's a scrape."

"Whatever, same thing", Vanellope said, "but how did you get hurt in there?"

The man drooped his head low. "A goat was trying to eat my overalls, and when I tried to shoo him away he started chasing me. That's what made me fall."

"A goat?!" she snickered, "that's all?!"

"It's not funny, Vanellope."

"Yes it is! A little goat trying to eat you... Fffft, that's so rich!"

Ralph's face went pink and he folded his arms. "ANYWAY... After that, Autumn found me and took me inside of her house to patch up my injury. I wish the bandage she used was a little less... Embarrassing."

"I think it's cute", the president stated, "though a little _too_ cute for you, Lardo."

"No need to rub it in", he growled.

Vanellope took her friend's hand and had him sit down in the chair across from her. "Are you gonna give it back to her when you're done with it?"

"She didn't tell me if she wanted it back or not.", Ralph shrugged, "but I will try the next time I see her."

"So I take it that she wasn't repelled by your stench?" the president snarked.

"I took a shower before I left _Fix-It Felix Jr._, thank you very much."

"You have a _shower_?!"

"I thought you knew that already?"

"Yeah, but... You actually used it?"

Ralph started to get annoyed with his friend talking about his hygiene habits. He tried to change the subject by beginning to tell her how things went between him and Autumn. Vanellope leaned in intently as he told her about having tea with her and the tour of _Spring Fever_ that he went on. She thought that Autumn sounded like a cool character and she wanted to meet her even more. Someone that had the ability to rustle Ralph-sized characters up if she had to with just gardening tools must be interesting. The wrecker told Vanellope that Autumn wanted to visit her game, which got her really excited.

"You got her to come to _Sugar Rush_?!" she jumped up and put her hands together, looking up at Ralph.

"Yep", he acknowledged, "I told her it was up to you when you when you wanted her to come."

"As soon as possible, _ga-doi_!" Vanellope got down from the seat and headed for the door, causing Ralph to follow her and grab her by her hoodie.

"Woah, hang on!" he ordered, "you're getting a little hasty here!"

After he put her down, she put her hands in her pockets and tilted her head. "Well, what did you have in mind, Captain Underpants?"

"I certainly didn't mean to bring Autumn here_ no_w!" he replied.

"You should've been more clear, genius."

The demolisher sighed. "I was thinking that... Maybe I should bring her to a Random Roster Race?"

"Now _that_ sounds like a good idea! How about tomorrow's?"

"I think that'll be good", he replied with a nod.

The president went to her desk and sifted through her papers until she found a calendar, then took out a pen and scribbled something on tomorrow's date. "There we go! I can't wait to meet her, Ralph. I gotta know what this chick is like!"

"You better be on your best behavior, kid", Ralph warned.

"Ah, don't worry about me, Lover Boy!"

The wrecker blushed and puffed air out of his nose. "I mean it, Vanellope! If you pull any funny stuff I'll—"

"Relax, Doctor Dumpster!" Vanellope chided, "the last thing I wanna see is you having a tantrum in front of your girlfriend!"

"For the last time, she's not my girlfriend!"

She patted him on his hand to try to calm him down, but the fact that she was giggling at him didn't help much. "I can see a vein popping out of your forehead." The girl reached up and touched it.

"Stop!" Ralph moaned childishly, swatting Vanellope away from him.

"Alright, alright!" the girl laughed as she leaned back in her seat and looked up at the ceiling.

They became quiet not too long after that, thinking about what they should do next. The castle was pretty boring at the moment with the guards patrolling around, and the other racers were off doing their own things around the game. Vanellope didn't get to see them all that often due to her having to fulfill her presidential duties on a daily basis, but she didn't mind all that much. She preferred to be alone most of the time anyway except when she wanted to spend time with Ralph or, on some rare occasions, Sour Bill. He was usually pretty boring so she didn't want to hang around him unless she needed him. Soon she felt Ralph stand up and watched him stretch out his huge arms, tittering at him lightly.

"I don't wanna sit here all day", he said, "let's go do something."

"That's a good plan." The president hopped off the chair, her feet touching the floor with a soft thud, "I wanna go to Game Central Station and check things out."

"Yeah, I guess we can do that", Ralph replied, "it's been awhile since I went there just to people-watch."

"Me too."

Vanellope climbed up Ralph like a monkey and perched up on his shoulder as she always did before he headed out the door and started his journey down the corridor out of her area of the castle. He asked if he wanted her to ride in his kart or let her drive her own kart to the exit of the game and she insisted that he drive his kart. There was no point in having it if he didn't drive it at all, according to her. Ralph chuckled and took up her request, keeping his eyes ahead to make sure that he didn't accidentally step on one of the candy people wandering the halls. The duo made some small conversation as they ventured through the castle, talking about what had gone on in their games recently and some players that had visited them. Ralph scolded her when he discovered that she had broken character in front of a little boy to wave at him during a game session, but Vanellope retorted that he was just as guilty as she was. Laughing it off, they agreed that it was pretty funny to see him act like he had just seen a ghost.

Ralph reached the door to exit the castle and once again the Oreo guards saluted him and opened the door when they saw him coming. After they closed the door behind him he asked the president where he had put his kart. She pointed towards the licorice tree that was nearby and he saw that she had parked it there.

"Since I figured that you were gonna come over today", Vanellope said, "I took _The Wrecker _out of the garage and put it here just to save us a trip!"

"That was pretty nice of you, Ms. President", Ralph replied.

"No need for formalities, Sir Wreck-It", she joked in an authoritative tone of voice.

The wrecker laughed as he climbed into the driver's seat of his kart, grabbing on the wheel and pushing the gas pedal to get the vehicle to take off down the path out of the castle grounds.

- 0 - 0 - 0 -

Ralph wandered around the perimeter of Game Central Station and let Vanellope take in the sights as she requested. Since she had only been able to leave Sugar Rush a year ago there was still a lot that she hadn't seen. he was patient with letting her see anything that she wanted, even going into a few games with her on occasion, but most of the time it was them mingling with the characters traveling through the terminal. Vanellope normally sat on Ralph's shoulders while she looked around, waving to everyone that walked by. After they got tired of walking around they would find somewhere to sit and watch the activity around them as they talked about whoever they saw and wondered what they were doing.

The president, however, was determined to have Ralph show her where the port for _Spring Fever_ was, to which he declined. She stuck out her tongue and jumped down to look for the game on her own. He started to panic as he chased after her, bumping into people who were in his way and not noticing their curses at him. Their chase lasted for several minutes until Ralph found Vanellope standing outside of the entrance to Spring Fever, where the Surge Protector was interrogating her.

"Kid", he asked while trying to catch his breath, "what do you think you're doing?!"

Vanellope looked away from the security guard to answer him. "Just making a reference point to where your girlfriend's game is, _duh_!"

The Surge Protector raised an eyebrow at Ralph, which he responded by giving him a halting gesture with his hands. "Don't listen to her, she doesn't know what she's talking about!"

"Sure", the blue man replied skeptically, "just keep track of Princess Von Schweetz, alright?"

"That's PRESIDENT to you, Baldy!"

Surge flinched at his unfortunate nickname and sighed, shaking his head. Ralph took her hand and quickly lead her away to a nearby rest area.

"What were you thinking?!" Ralph hissed, "making me chase you around the station like that..."

"Like I told Baldy", the girl answered, "I wanted to see where _Spring Fever_ was. It's not like I was gonna go in or anything, 'cause I knew you'd be a huge diaper baby about it."

He leaned back in his seat and groaned. His heart was pounding out of his chest from running around and from his embarrassment.

"If you're acting like this now", Vanellope giggled, "I can't imagine what you're gonna be like at the race tomorrow... But don't worry, I'm gonna let everyone know of our special guest and tell them to be extra nice to her... Just for you, Stinky." the princess smiled and winked.

Ralph glared at her and didn't respond, leaving his friend to look away from him and laugh to herself. She loved to push the bad guy's buttons but sometimes he would get so fussy that she would have to back off and let him cool down for a while. The girl's laughter quieted after a while as she began to watch the traveling characters in the station more closely. Nobody was doing anything particularly interesting and Vanellope yawned, feeling the boredom setting in already. She wished that there was more action going on in the station besides idle conversation and people just wandering about. Ralph wasn't being particularly fun himself, pouting like a baby over her simply wanting to see what _Spring Fever_'s terminal looked like. She lied back on the bench and played with the licorice pull-string of her hoodie.

"This isn't as fun as I thought it would be", she sighed.

"Yeah", Ralph replied, "it's pretty boring today."

"Maybe we should go game-jumping?" Vanellope asked, sitting up and facing him.

"I guess", the wrecker said with a shrug, "where do you wanna go?"

The president put her hand to her chin and thought for a moment. "Well, I_ am_ kinda hungry..." she looked into the distance and saw the long line forming at _Tapper _and pointed towards it. "How about we go there?"

"Good grief", Ralph muttered, "that line is going_ way _out the door... I dunno, kid, it's happy hour, and child characters aren't allowed in during it."

Vanellope scowled and huffed, "aww, man, what a load of duty!"

"We could still go to _Burger Time_", he suggested, "it's been awhile since I've gone there, anyway. It would be nice to see how Peter Pepper is doing."

"Peter Pooper?!" the president laughed.

"No", he groaned, "PEPPER. Peter PEPPER."

"_Oooooh_..." She went silent for a few seconds before she whispered into Ralph's ear, "so, how many poops did Peter Pepper poop?"

"VANELLOPE!" he shouted in frustration.

The president doubled over laughing at her own joke while Ralph stared at her completely unamused. Some of the passerby in Game Central Station stopped when they heard him shout and stared at him bewildered. He turned his head and gave them an apologetic look, gesturing at them that there was nothing to see. They got the message and walked off while talking to each other. When the spectators were gone and Vanellope's chortling ceased he stood up, grabbed his pint-sized friend and trotted off towards the port of _Burger Time_.

"What's the matter, buddy?" she asked, wiping tears from her eyes, "was that not funny enough?"

"It wasn't funny at all", he said, "Peter Pepper is a retro character like me, so you oughta show him some respect."

"I was only playin' around! C'mon, you know me, Ralph!"

"I know, but Peter doesn't. I don't want you saying that in there or we might get kicked out of the game or something, I dunno."

Vanellope put her hands on top of Ralph's head and played with his hair as she talked. "Okay, I won't say anything. I gotta make _Sugar Rush_ look good anyway since I'm the president. Sour Bill would kill me if I got us kicked out of a game."

The demolisher thought of the green hard candy yelling at them and got a shiver. It was strange imagining the usually stoic and droning chancellor getting angry and not to mention terrifying. "Let's not even get into that."

"Eww, yeah."

The walk to _Burger Time_ was uneventful as Ralph watched his step going through the crowd and Vanellope yawned in boredom, hanging onto his neck to make sure that she didn't fall off if someone bumped into him. The line outside of _Tapper_ was growing by the second so they had to take extra caution. After squeezing past the line they finally saw the port that they were looking for and headed towards it.

"Finally", Ralph grumbled, "my stomach's killing me..."

"I can hear it all the way up here!" Vanellope started to make a growling noise to imitate his stomach.

He instinctively put his hand on his torso and rubbed it. "Hey, all I ate in _Spring Fever_ was tea and cookies!"

"Maybe next time you should tell Autumn to feed you more", she joked.

Ralph rolled his eyes and put his hand on his forehead. By the time their banter was over they had already arrived in front of the entrance to _Burger Time_. However, just like always, the Surge Protector was there to stop Ralph in his tracks, giving him his normal look of contempt.

"Names?" he asked.

"You just saw us like five minutes ago!" Ralph complained, "do we really need to do this?!"

"I'm just doing my job, sir", Surge answered, "now please just tell me your names so I can go on my merry way."

"Wreck-It Ralph", the wrecker mumbled.

"PRESIDENT Vanellope von Schweetz", Vanellope added.

The guard adjusted his glasses and continued his interrogation. "Where are you two coming from?"

"_Sugar Rush_."

"Do either of you have anything on your person?"

Ralph showed his cookie medal, the knight's pin and his embarrassing cloth-wrapped bandage to him. Surge nodded and cleared the items of contraband but chuckled slightly at the flower-patterned fabric.

"What are you laughing at?!" He growled.

"Nothing", the Surge Protector said, "just laughing at myself. I have to keep my spirits up while I do this job, sir."

He turned to Vanellope and asked her to show him anything that she had on her. She took a bunch of candy out of her pockets and handed it over to the security guard.

"You had candy with you?!" Ralph whispered to her.

"What?" she asked innocently, "I kept some just in case I got really hungry, but now that we're here, Baldy can have it."

Surge shook his head at his unfortunate nickname and sent the candy to his confiscation box. "You won't believe how much of the contraband in here is candy from _Sugar Rush_."

"C'mon", the president said, "you know it's good candy, right? I bet you've tasted at least a couple of 'em!"

"I'm permitted not to tamper with any of the contraband."

"Pppft, you're no fun", Vanellope stuck out her tongue at him.

The blue man sighed and offered his permission to go inside of _Burger Time_ before he vanished into the air. Once he was gone Ralph walked through the doorway of the game and got into the train car.


	8. Burger Time

_**Chapter 8: Burger Time**_

The smell of food permeated the air as the train heading into the station of_ Burger Time_ came to a stop. Ralph started to feel hungrier by the second the more he breathed in the burgers in the air and his stomach protested louder than ever. He held it in embarrassment to make sure that nobody heard the growling sounds, but Vanellope started to snicker at him. Some of the other passengers in the trolley with them looked at each other in disgust over the large man's bodily functions and got out of their seats as soon as they could. The wrecker sighed and followed the passengers off the train and stepped on the platform, his friend following closely behind him.

It felt strange for Ralph to walk around the restaurant-themed game again after all these years. His last visit to the game was many years ago when Felix tried to take him out for a lunch between co-workers. Things didn't go over well because some of the good guy characters around them gossiped about the giant within his earshot. Ralph knew that things had greatly changed since then and Peter Pepper apologized for what happened, but he felt that there were still some citizens of the arcade world that still weren't ready to accept that bad guys weren't that bad.

They continued walking towards the restaurant that was at the end of the path from the station. The closer they were getting to the building the more the scent of the burgers was pulling them in. When they got closer to the door he spotted a pair of humanoid hot dogs standing there looking at them. Ralph recognized them as part of the group of bad guys in the game, having seen them in _Tapper_ occasionally. The hot dog twins began to walk towards him and shook his hand like they were his best friends.

"Wreck-It Ralph", the first hot dog, Frank, said, "ain't seen ya around these parts in ages!"

"Sorry about that", Ralph answered sheepishly, "I've been kinda busy lately, so uh..."

Furter, the second hot dog, slapped him on the back and chortled. "Don't worry about it, pal! Even next door neighbors can go a long time without seeing each other!"

The man nodded. "I really should make it a point to stop by more often, huh?"

"Of course!" Frank replied, "seeing you at _Tapper_ every now and again is nice and all, but..."

Suddenly, the hot dogs and Ralph were interrupted by stifled giggling. The demolisher knew exactly what it was and peered at Vanellope, whom had tears threatening to come out of her eyes and was covering her mouth with her hands.

"Kid", the man asked, "are you gonna be—"

"GIANT WIENERS!" the president fell over in hysterics, kicking her feet and struggling to get air into her lungs.

Ralph put his palm on his face in embarrassment as a few bystanders stared at Vanellope.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious, girlie", Furter chuckled.

Frank shooed away the onlookers before responding to his brother. "It's like she's never seen walking and talking food like us before!"

Vanellope wiped her eyes and stood up to face the hot dogs again. "Are you kidding?! My_ entire_ game is nothing but candy!"

Frank and Furter sat in thought for several moments trying to figure out which game she was talking about.

"Oh!" Furter finally exclaimed, "you're from that racing game, right?_ Candy Crush_?"

"_Sugar Rush_", the girl corrected, "it's over by the Whack-a-Mole."

"I hear some bells ringin' now, yeah", Frank said, "don't think I've seen anybody from there come here before."

Vanellope gave them her victory pose and smiled with pride. "Well, as president of _Sugar Rush_, Vanellope von Schweetz, I serve as an ambassador to your fair game... And also to sample your cuisine."

The hot dog duo chuckled and looked back at Ralph. "She's something else, huh?"

"No kiddin'!" he replied with a laugh.

Frank nodded in agreement. "You're pretty funny, girlie!"

"Thanks", the president said with a wide smile, "you guys oughta come for the Random Roster Race tomorrow night." she pulled out two of her customized business cards and gave them to the hot dogs.

"We might stop by if we get a chance", they both said in unison.

Vanellope clapped her hands together. "Excellent! I will be looking forward to seeing you!" she patted Ralph on his belly and added, "and so will my honorary knight."

The wrecker smiled nervously and scratched the back of his neck. "It's kind of a long story."

Frank and Furter slapped Ralph on the back and snickered. "Oh, you're the girlie's bodyguard, eh? Good on ya!"

"Thanks, I guess", Ralph muttered.

"No problem, pal! Oh, and nice meetin' ya, girlie!" The twins turned and headed for the back of the restaurant and waved as they walked away.

"We're gonna head off to watch a match in _Street Fighter_", Furter said.

"Later, fellas!" Ralph called out before they went out of sight. By the time they were gone he and Vanellope were next in line to get inside the building. They stepped through the doors and were greeted by the smell of burgers on the grill and the sound of characters talking at their tables. The man stepped up to the counter and waited for Peter Pepper to come out and take their orders.

"I liked those giant wieners", Vanellope snickered, "they thought I was funny!"

"Those two are easily amused."

"At least they're not all grumpy like you!"

"I'm not grumpy..." the wrecker scowled and folded his arms, making his friend laugh.

"I can see the wrinkles around your eyes, Tiny", she giggled.

Ralph instinctively touched the corners of his eyes and grumbled, "cut it out, Vanellope!"

"Sheesh, I was just messin' with ya, buddy!" the girl put her hand on his hand and rubbed it to comfort him.

The two went silent, not knowing how to keep the conversation going. Peter must have been backed up in the kitchen because they had stood at the counter for over five minutes. Ralph tapped his foot impatiently and had the urge to call the chef out, but he didn't want to make a scene in front of everyone. His stomach was continuing to bother him and didn't know how much longer he was going to be able to wait. He took Vanellope's hand and lead her to one of the empty tables when they started seeing the line behind them disperse.

"What's going on?" Vanellope asked.

"I don't know", Ralph replied, "looks like Peter is really busy today."

"Maybe you should go back there and see what's up?"

The wrecker shook his head. "I can't just waltz on in there, you know!"

"Aren't you starving like I am, Ralph?" the president whined while giving him a deprived look.

"Yeah", he said, "but we gotta be patient."

Vanellope got down from her chair and went back to the counter to call out the chef herself. "Patient, smatient, I'm not gonna wait all day! I have an important job and I can't do it without proper nourishment!" she didn't listen to Ralph's protests to come back to the table and attempted to hop up on the counter, but her friend rushed over and stopped her before she could. The girl struggled to get out of his hands and yelled out to the chef to get his butt out of the kitchen so she wouldn't starve.

Soon a little man in a chef hat came out of the kitchen with a startled look on his face. He looked up and saw Ralph and Vanellope arguing in front of the customers, all of whom had irritated looks on their faces. He began to panic and started apologizing profusely to them before going up to the president and the giant.

"Please, stop!" he commanded as he held his hands up.

Ralph and Vanellope turned their heads and saw the man trembling and sweating profusely. He put the girl down and stepped closer to the nervous gentleman, feeling terrible about what just happened.

"Peter", Ralph began, "look, I'm sorry! My friend here was getting a bit impatient with waiting for you to come out!"

Peter looked at Ralph and then Vanellope. He took off his hat and said, "I'm terribly sorry, but I got held up in the kitchen..." he looked down as his face turned red. "... I misplaced my spatula and it took me forever to find it."

"Oh", Vanellope mumbled.

"Yeah, I've been so busy that my mind kinda slipped!" the chef rubbed the back of his neck and laughed nervously.

"So everything's fine now?" Ralph questioned.

"Of course", Peter replied, "just keep it down, okay? I saw some of my customers staring at you guys."

Ralph scratched his cheek with his finger. "Sure, no problem. Oh, and by the way..." he leaned down to face the smaller man. "I want the Super Deluxe. Everything on it... And don't skimp on the pickles."

"Sure thing, Ralph!" he took out a notepad from his hat and wrote the request. "And what about you, miss?"

"I'll have what he's having", the president said.

"Are you sure you can eat all that, Vanellope?" Ralph chuckled, widening his eyes a bit.

"Of course I can!" she declared.

Peter nodded and put his notepad away once he was done writing their orders down. "Okay, I'll go make these right away!"

Before he could walk away, however, customers appeared back in line and started throwing more orders at him. "... As soon as I get everyone else's filled, heh heh... " sweat appeared on his face and he proceeded to listen to everyone's complaints and requests.

Ralph and Vanellope returned to their table to wait for their burgers to arrive, cutting through the line that was starting to fill back up again.

"He's such a weirdo", Vanellope said.

"Peter's just overworked", Ralph explained, "between him and Tapper, they've got a lot on their plates doing business outside of the arcade's regular hours."

"At least Tapper doesn't make us wait forever."

Ralph sighed and put his elbows on the table, cradling his head in his hand. He was beginning to get stressed out with everything that was happening and was starting to regret bringing Vanellope with him to_ Burger Time _in the first place. Perhaps he was just grumpy because he was hungry, but it didn't make his mood any better when he felt like he had to play babysitter with the pint-sized president.

"Ralph?" the girl asked, "you gonna be okay?" she got out of her chair and sat on his shoulder. "I see that vein in your forehead again..."

"I'm fine", he replied, swiping her hand away from his head when she tried to touch it.

"Just making sure you don't explode before we get our burgers!"

He chuckled slightly before sitting up and turning his head to face his friend. "Don't worry, I won't."

Before Vanellope could respond she was cut off by the sound of someone calling their name. She turned around and saw Felix and Calhoun standing at the counter to get waited on. The handyman waved at them and Vanellope waved back, with Ralph doing the same. It took several minutes before the couple's orders were taken and they were able to sit with their friends.

"Well I'll be dipped!" Felix exclaimed, "Ralph and Vanellope... How's your days been so far?"

"Pretty good", Ralph answered, "just the usual... We _were_ exploring Game Central Station until the pipsqueak wanted to eat here."

"Tammy and I just came from_ Tapper_... There was such a long line that we got tired of waiting, so we decided to come here."

"Yeah, it's crazy over there now." the wrecker's stomach grumbled again and looked away from the group embarrassed. "Sorry about that... We've been waiting for our burgers for a while..."

"I noticed everyone complaining that Peter Pepper was being slow while we were in line", Tamora added.

"He got held up trying to find his spatula."

"Looks like we came just in time", Felix said.

Soon they heard Peter call out Ralph and Vanellope's order and he got up to get it. He excused himself from the table leaving the president with the fixer and the sergeant. They watched the giant stand at the counter and take the burgers from Peter, then turn back around to return to the table. Calhoun chuckled to herself, to which her husband turned his head and asked her what was going on.

She pointed at Ralph's leg and whispered, "is there some new fashion trend in the arcade, snookums?"

Mr. Fix-It gave her a confused look and replied, "I don't think so, honey..."

When Ralph returned to the table he noticed his friend's befuddled expressions. "Uh... Guys? What's going on?"

"They were whispering something about you", Vanellope answered, "I couldn't figure out what they were saying, though."

"We, um..." Felix paused before he completed his statement. "... Tammy and I noticed that you were wearing something on your leg."

Ralph's heart plummeted to the floor within seconds. "W-What're you guys talking about?!"

"Whatever's wrapped around your knee, Wreck-It."

Vanellope stood on the table and decided to waste no time getting straight to the point. "Oh, it's a bandage Ralphie got from his _girlfriend_! It's got flowers on it and everything!" She was so loud that some of the other diners overheard and stared at Ralph in a mixture of shock, confusion and disgust. At that moment the wrecker wanted to crawl under the table and hide. That is, if he were able to fit.

"Oh my land", Felix gasped, "are you alright, Ralph? I could take a look at it later and fix it up in a jiffy!"

"Just a little scrape, don't worry."

"That's good! I'm glad it's not anything serious!"

The demolisher laughed nervously and scratched at the cloth on his leg. "Yeah, me too, Felix..."

At that moment Calhoun stood up when she heard her and her husband's orders be called. "I'll be right back." she got up from her seat and walked to the counter.

"You really need to learn not to be so loud, kid", Ralph chided.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Vanellope said, "sometimes I just get caught in the heat of the moment!"

Ralph reached for his burger and took a bite out of it, trying to forget what had just happened. If Felix and Calhoun weren't there he would've taken his food and walked out of _Burger Time_. A few moments later Tamora returned to the table with more burgers and sat down next to her husband again. After she handed over one of the burgers she took her own and bit into it.

"This is pretty good, I suppose", the sergeant replied, "I didn't want so much onion, however... How about yours, honey?"

"Just right for me!" Felix answered.

Vanellope struggled to hold hers. "This thing is _huge_!"

"I told you, kid", Ralph said, "just save me what you can't eat, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Fatty!" she took another tiny chomp on the giant sandwich.

The man chuckled and finished off his burger in no time and leaned back in his chair satisfied. He closed his eyes to rest them for a few moments until he heard Vanellope start to talk.

"Soooo", she drawled, "the next Random Roster Race is tomorrow, and I want you and the Sarge to be there, Handyman!"

"Of course we will!" Felix replied, "won't we, Tammy?"

"By my code of honor, sugar."

"Yippee! My invites are just rolling in!" Vanellope fist pumped.

"... Who else did you invite?" Ralph asked.

"You dingus, how could you forget?!"

Felix gasped and shot Ralph a glare. "Vanellope, has Ralph been teaching you bad words?!"

"Dingus isn't a bad word!" Vanellope laughed.

"But it still isn't very nice to say", the fixer scolded.

"ANYWAY", she continued, "besides inviting my three best friends in the world, I also invited giant wieners from this game!"

"Frank and Furter are coming?" Felix asked in surprise, "I didn't expect them to want to go to a game like yours."

"They thought I was cool so they took up my offer!" Vanellope said with a grin.

"Autumn is coming too", Ralph mumbled softly.

The handyman gasped and smiled wide. "Really? That's wonderful, Ralph!"

"Yeah", the taller man replied, "I told her about _Sugar Rush_ and she wanted to watch the race."

"I'll be looking forward to meeting her", Calhoun added, "it's been awhile since I've met anyone new in Game Central Station."

"Me too", her husband agreed.

"She's looking forward to meeting you all too", Ralph went on, "I just hope that she doesn't get overwhelmed with how _Sugar Rush_ can be..."

"Are you kidding?!" Vanellope asked in shock, "she'll be having so much fun she won't even think about being nervous!"

Her friend nodded. "I hope you're right, kid."

"Of course I am, Chubby! When am I ever wrong?"

"Do you want me to answer that?"

"... No, not really."

Ralph snickered and got up from his chair to head to the trash can to throw his burger wrapper and used napkins away, while everyone else got up and followed him to do the same.

"Watch me throw a basket!" the president balled up some trash and aimed it at the rubbish bin. She tossed it and missed it by and inch. "Aww, man, I almost had it!"

"You're technique's getting rusty, Crumbsnatcher." The wrecker picked up her trash ball and threw it in.

"Like you know about technique, Ham Hands!" Vanellope giggled.

He picked her up and put him on his shoulder as he waited for his co-worker and his wife to rejoin them at the table. They grabbed their things and lead the way out of the building, waving goodbye to Peter when they saw him taking orders again. When they got outside they stood outside of the restaurant and started another conversation.

"That was swell hanging out with you all here", Felix said.

"I know", Ralph answered, "we need to find time to get together more often."

"It would be nice", the sergeant added.

"Well we're gonna have fun at the race, right?" the president asked.

The handyman tipped his hat and smile. "We sure are, Vanellope!"

Vanellope started to run around and move her hands as if she were driving her kart. "Not only that, but I'm gonna win!" she honked the horn on her invisible kart and shouted, "get outta my way, chumps! President Vanellope von Schweetz is on her way to first place!"

Everyone laughed and agreed that she was indeed going to win the race. Ralph was especially supportive and always cheered the loudest for her in the stands. He imagined that it was going to be just the same tomorrow night, except that he was going to be with a special guest. The man hoped that he wasn't going to make himself look like a fool in front of Autumn and he didn't know what he was going to do if he did. Ralph shook his head and warded off his worries, reassuring himself that everything was going to run smoothly and he will be a good escort for her.

Felix lead the way back to the train station as they discussed where they were going to go next. Calhoun declared that she wanted to head back to _Hero's Duty_ to prepare her soldiers for their game sessions the following morning, while Ralph volunteered to take Vanellope back to _Sugar Rush_. He wanted her to get plenty of test before the big race, but the racer insisted that she wasn't tired.

"You wanna win that race, doncha?" Ralph asked as they got into their seats on the train.

"'Course I do, Stinkbrain!"

"Then you better get some sleep, kid. I don't want you falling asleep behind the wheel."

Vanellope folded her arms and pouted in response. "I'm gonna be fine, trust me!"

"Whatever you say", the demolisher gave in, "but you're not gonna be in top form if you stay up all night."

"I stay up all the time!"

Ralph put his hand on his face and sighed. "I know, I can tell when I see you crash into the walls during practice."

The president glared at him and argued, "the sun was in my eyes!"

"Uh huh, sure... It didn't help that I saw you yawning and nodding off constantly."

She stuck her tongue out at him and blew a raspberry. "Being the president isn't easy, okay? I got a lot of responsibilities!"

"Yep, which is why you need rest."

Vanellope put her hands on her hips and huffed, "who do you think you are, my dad?"

"No", Ralph answered, "but I care about your well-being."

"Trust me, Ralphie Boy, I've got this! That trophy is as good as mine!"

"Alright, Ms. President, I'll take your word for it."

They stopped talking when they were interrupted by the PSA system announcing that they were arriving in Game Central Station. As the train came to a halt, the group stood up and got off after the other passengers that were disembarking with them. The Surge Protector was there as usual checking everyone as they stopped, but he was going through the line pretty quickly. When it was Ralph and his friend's turn to get checked, it stopped the line like they expected it would.

"Names?" Surge droned in his usual authoritative tone.

"Wreck-It Ralph, Fix-It Felix Jr., Vanellope von Schweetz and Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun", Ralph said all in one breath.

"Where are you coming from?"

"_Burger Time_."

The security guard scribbled some things down on his clipboard. He looked up when he was done and asked, "and where are you going?"

"I'm going to _Sugar Rush_", Ralph said, "escorting the president back to her chambers."

"Okay..." Surge turned to Felix and Calhoun and asked, "and you all?"

"_Hero's Duty_", Calhoun answered.

"And_ Fix-It Felix Jr._ for me", Felix added.

"Alright, proceed." the blue man disappeared and let the group out of the port and into the proper of Game Central Station. The friends waved to each other and said goodbye before heading their separate ways. It was a bit disappointing that they weren't together for that long, but they knew that they were going to have more opportunities to talk at the Random Roster Race. Ralph started to notice that Vanellope was yawning and leaning on his arm as they were walking towards the entrance to Sugar Rush's station, so he picked her up and placed her on his shoulder.

"Gettin' tired, squirt?" the giant chuckled.

"N-No!", Vanellope muttered with a yawn, "I'm just.. I dunno, I guess I'm bored."

Ralph shrugged. "Yeah, it _was_ pretty boring today, huh?"

"How was it boring for _you_?!" the president looked at him in shock. "You got to go to a new game today!"

"Besides that", he retorted as his face went red.

Vanellope laughed and pinched his cheek. "You look like a cherry, Ralphie."

"Stop", Ralph grumbled.

"Uh oh, I activated Diaper Baby Mode!"

He tuned her out as he was walking towards his destination, trying to not let her push his buttons like she always loved to do. Ralph knew that it was going to be easier to do so now that he met Autumn, and he was afraid of what she was going to do tomorrow. The wrecker sighed and hoped that Vanellope was going to keep her promise to keep her antics down and not embarrass him in front of everyone. Ralph looked up and spotted the sign that he was looking for and headed towards it, his friend still rambling off about her plans for the next day.

- 0 - 0 - 0 -

"I don't need to be tucked in, Ralph, I'm not a baby!" Vanellope protested as she pushed his large hand away from her.

Ralph was trying to get her to go to sleep like he normally did when he escorted her back to _Sugar Rush_ after a long day of exploring, but tonight she was being difficult. He understood that she was excited about the race, but he was worried that if she didn't get enough sleep before then she was going to get hurt.

"C'mon, kid, just settle down and go to sleep, okay?" Ralph asked as exhaustion started to settle in.

She yawned and retorted, "but I'm not tired!"

"Heh, a likely story." the giant plucked the girl up by her hoodie and placed her on her bed for the thousandth time.

"Really, I don't wanna go to sleep yet!"

"But you _have_ to, Vanellope."

The president pouted and folded her arms. "You can't make me do anything!"

"I guess you're not gonna hear a new bedtime story tonight", he warned after a moment of pondering.

"What?!" Her face lost its expression and she looked at Ralph as she tilted her head to the side. "Which one?!"

_Heh, that got her_, he thought, then looked at Vanellope and said, "you know... The one about the uh..." He paused again and thought of something on the spot, "... The giant and the jelly bean stalk?"

"_Oooooh!_" Vanellope crawled under her covers and clasped her hands together in interest. "Well whadda ya waitin' for, Stubby?! Lay it on me!"

Ralph sat down on the edge of the bed and chuckled a bit before he answered her. "Alright, gimme a second..." he took a breath and exhaled.

"... Once upon a time", he said in his best fairy-tale narrator's voice, "there was a little girl named Vanellope von Schweetz that lived in the fair, faraway land called _Sugar Rush_."

"Hey, I'm in this story!" she exclaimed.

The man chuckled and continued. "And one day, Vanellope found some, uh..." Ralph stood up and picked up some candy that was laying on the floor. "... jellybeans!"

"What did I do with them, oh all-powerful storyteller?"

"I'm getting to that", replied the wrecker. He gave her the jellybeans and continued the story. "... Anyway, she took the jellybeans and planted them. Then, the next day..." Ralph stretched out his hands as much as he could. "A giant jellybean stalk was right outside of her castle!"

Vanellope gasped and put her hands on her mouth. "Wow!"

"And Vanellope decided to climb up the beanstalk to see where it would lead. When she got all the way to the top, way above the cotton candy clouds... She saw the biggest house she had ever seen! Vanellope walked inside of the house and looked around for a bit, but when she accidentally knocked over one of the potted plants..."

He balled up his fists and started stomping his feet around the room. "She heard someone coming, and she had to get out of there fast before she got caught!"

"Oh no!" Vanellope cried playfully.

"The sound got louder and louder, but Vanellope couldn't get away! Soon the owner of the house appeared and he yelled..."

The man took a deep breath and yelled at the top of his lungs, "FEE FIE FO FUM, I SMELL TAFFY AND BUBBLEGUM!"

Vanellope began to laugh with tears streaming down her face and could hardly control her breathing.

"Vanellope ran as fast as she could when she saw him, but she wasn't fast enough for him!"

"W-What did he do, Ralph?!" she asked through her laughter.

"He... TICKLED HER!" Ralph leaned over Vanellope's bed and started a tickle fight with her, causing her to laugh even more.

"Cut it out, Stinkbrain!" Vanellope shouted through her giggle fit, "you're gonna make me pass out from laughing too much!"

Their tickle fight continued for a few minutes until the president called for a truce and he backed off to let her breathe and recompose herself. Ralph himself smiled in victory as he was finally able to get her to calm down enough to lie her head on her pillow after telling her the end of the story. The giant and Vanellope apparently became friends after they went on a big adventure searching for a replacement vase.

"That was a funny story, Chumbo", she muttered.

"Thanks, I guess", Ralph responded as he scratched the back of his neck, "I kinda made it up on the spot if you couldn't tell."

"I noticed."

Ralph and Vanellope went quiet soon after as the giant stood up and adjusted the blankets over her. "So are you gonna try to go to sleep now?"

"Yeah", Vanellope mumbled, "you made me laugh all the oxygen outta my lungs and I gotta get it back."

"Sorry", he chortled gently. Before he walked out of her room, Ralph gave Vanellope a little fist bump. "Dream about winning that race, okay?"

"Sure thing, Doodyhead..."

The wrecker got to the doorway and looked back to see that she had fallen fast asleep. He smiled and turned down the hallway leading to the castle foyer, holding the hero pendant in his hands as he began to feel nostalgic about all the times he and Vanellope shared together. Ralph smiled to himself and thought that nothing would ever make him happier than his friend being by his side.

"You're a pain in the neck sometimes, kid", he said quietly to himself as he walked past a snoozing candy guard, "but I wouldn't have it any other way."


	9. Within This Game Lies a Secret

_**Chapter 9: Within This Game Lies a Secret **_

Suzy stepped through the doors of Litwak's arcade the following afternoon, ready to unwind after a long day at school. She immediately set her eyes on _Fix-It Felix Jr._ and walked over to it with her quarters in hand. After she plopped the coins into the slot she gripped the control stick and put her free hand on the jump button as she waited for the game to start. The quarter alert jostled the inhabitants of the game into place and Suzy began the first level of the game. Her concentration was unwavered as she hopped up and down the window sills of the apartment building as Felix. She knew this game like the back of her hand and knew exactly how to pull the wool over Ralph's eyes. Suzy sighed in satisfaction as she completed the first level and watched as the bad guy got tossed into the mud puddle.

For the next half hour the girl kept at getting as far as she could into the game, until she heard a noise that caused her to get in a snag and got struck down with a flying brick. The game over screen soon appeared with Felix lying on the ground with a white flower in his hands.

"Darn, I was so close!" muttered Suzy. She contemplated for a moment if she should have another go at the game, but she decided that she should try to play something else since she was short on time.

_"Mom wants me home by four-thirty"_, she thought, "_so I better make this quick... Ugh, why did there have to be a big test coming up this week?!"_

Trying to take her mind off of her upcoming exam, the eleven year old walked away from the _Fix-It Felix Jr._ cabinet and looked for another game. More importantly, she wanted to find out what that noise she heard earlier was. To her, it sounded like someone was in a very intense game, but everyone seemed to be relaxed as they were playing their games. Suzy could still hear the noise, however, and it was driving her crazy to the point that she was tempted to tell Mr. Litwak about it. She continued walking through the arcade until she noticed that the sound that she was hearing before started to grow louder. Soon she found the source of the sound when she saw two guys standing in front of _Spring Fever_.

One of them she identified as Danny, the blogger guy that she had seen several times before in the arcade. He was standing next to the other young man who was playing, but he was smashing on the console buttons over and over again. Perplexed at what they were doing, the moppet girl stepped closer to take a look at what they were trying to do.

"This isn't working, Danny!" the player groaned in frustration as he withdrew his hands away from the controls.

"We have to keep trying, Nick!" said Danny urgently, "we have to find out if it's true!"

"How do you know if he just made it up? I think we're just wasting our time, man."

Suzy was about to open her mouth to ask about what they were doing, but Mr. Litwak appeared next to game and took the words right out of her mouth.

"What in blazes are you two doing over here?" he asked bewildered, "I could hear those buttons way on the other side of the arcade!"

"Sorry, Mr. Litwak", Nick apologized sheepishly, "but Danny over here has this scheme planted in his head."

Stanley quirked an eyebrow in interest. "Really now?" he turned his head to face the blogger and inquired, "what are you up to this time, Danny? Something else for you blog?"

"That and so much more." Danny replied excitedly, "you won't believe what I just found out." He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts before he began to speak. "There is a secret that lies within this game, Mr. Litwak. One that nobody has ever been able to figure out."

"Oh?" asked the arcade owner, his eyes widening.

The boy cleared his throat slightly and began his explanation.

"... One of the readers of my blog had sent me a link to the blog of Nobuyuki Kimura, the creator of _Spring Fever_. Since the website was in Japanese, I had to use a translation tool to try to get the gist of what was said. After the sales of the game suffered and Natsuno, the company that developed the game, went under, Kimura had gone on to work for Helianthus Games."

"Heli... What now?" interrupted Litwak.

"Helianthus Games", the blogger said, "they've dabbled in several genres, but their games aren't available outside of Japan."

"I see", mused the owner, "I don't get any imports for the arcade, so I didn't recognize the name."

"Anyway... On Kimura's blog, he had a post about _Spring Fever_, showing off concept art that he drew for the game and some trivia about it. One of them was that he had placed a hidden code into the game. However, he refused to say what the code was or how to find it. In his own words: 'It's no fun to reveal how a magician performs his tricks, is it?'"

"Certainly not", Stanley agreed.

Suzy remained standing behind the three men and was just as mind blown as the arcade owner. She had found codes for some of the games in the arcade before, but this is the first one that she had heard about in a while that gave her such fascination. When she let out an audible, "wow", Mr. Litwak turned around and acknowledged her presence.

"Oh, Suzy! I'm terribly sorry for making you wait for so long", he said, "was there something you needed?"

"I was about to come complain to you about these guys messing with the game", Suzy answered, "but I think this just answered my question."

"As with I! We've stumbled upon quite an enigma, haven't we?"

"Tell me about it, Mr. Litwak", added Danny, "Kimura seemed to be pretty stubborn about what that code was. After that post on his site was made, it had raised everyone's curiosity. Unfortunately, _Spring Fever_ is hard to come by, so there aren't that many places where people can try to find it for themselves. The people who I heard from that tried to find the code were hardcore enthusiasts that had the game in their personal collection. No word on any other arcades besides this one having it."

"We have to find out what this code is", Suzy said, "this could be one of the biggest gaming mysteries ever! And if we solved it..."

"... Oh, boy, I'd be the talk of the town!" Litwak interjected jovially, "I can see it now... Stanley Litwak, proprietor of Litwak's Family Fun Center, discovers one of gaming's biggest secrets!"

"Whoever finds it should get credit too, of course", cut in Danny, puffing out his chest proudly.

"Don't worry, that will happen", the man reassured him.

"I just hope that he isn't pulling our leg", Nick mumbled grumpily.

"That's a possibility", his friend told him, "but I still want answers to this mystery."

"That's strange", Stan said with a chuckle, "you didn't seem to care at all about this game yesterday. That review you left was rather scathing."

"That was before I knew of all of this. The reader that sent me Kimura's blog had told me that my mind was going to be changed after I read that article... And boy, was he right! I love finding hidden stuff in video games, and this might be the biggest one yet."

"Certainly for me as well", the arcade owner said, "most of the time cheat codes are made known by the developer of the game, but here it's a totally different story."

"But if we find it", Suzy questioned, "what would happen?"

"I don't know", replied Danny, "there are many guesses floating around about what the code is. Some have said that it's a gamebreaker that lets you breeze through the levels with no problem, while others think that it unlocks a hidden level."

"Well, whatever it is", said Litwak, "it's begging to be found!"

Danny and Suzy shook their heads in agreement while Nick leaned on the console and sighed grumpily.

"I don't know about this", he said, "I mean... Like I said, this could all be a hoax. There's been many times where there was some secret thing in a game and it ended up being a big joke."

"You can back out if you want to, Nick", the blogger responded, "but I'm sticking with this. I promised the readers of my blog that I would try to find this code, and I'm going to do it."

"Not if I find it first!" Suzy added with a smirk.

"We'll see about that, kid", he retorted playfully.

Litwak laughed and put his hands on both of their shoulders. "I wish both of you the best of luck, no matter who finds the code first."

"Thanks, Mr. Litwak", she said before she began to walk away. "I'm going to find another game to play now. Mom wants me home soon and I want to fit one more in before I leave."

"Alright, take care, Suzy!" The arcade owner looked back at the two boys and said, "as for me, I'm going back to my post. You know where to find me if you need me."

"Okay, see you later, Mr. Litwak", Danny said.

"C'mon, Danny let's get outta here", the other boy complained, "I wanna hit up the burger joint down the street, I'm starvin'!"

"Good idea... All this excitement really got me working up an appetite."

Danny and Nick walked away from the _Spring Fever_ cabinet and walked out the doors of the arcade, leaving the game alone again.

Autumn had listened to the entire exchange discretely as the game was sitting in its idle mode. She was completely unaware of the code that was in the game, nor did she notice anything suspicious. The farmer had checked every nook and cranny the first day that the game got plugged in, but there was nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. Even when she had given Ralph a tour of the game the day before she didn't see anything. Perhaps she needed to look beyond the exterior of the game.

_"I think I need to go into the code room"_, she thought, "_but it's been a long time since I've gone in there..."_

- 0 - 0 - 0 -

As soon as the _DDR_ dancers announced that Mr. Litwak had left for the evening, Autumn headed inside of her house to look for the key to _Spring Fever_'s code room. She went upstairs into her bedroom and opened up a wooden box with a skeleton key inside, attached to a chain and a rose in the center of the handle. The farmer wasn't too keen on going into the code room, as the last time she went in there was when her game got unplugged from Carl's Diner. She had to push those memories aside for now and focus on trying to find out what her creator had hidden in the game, as hard it was for her.

Taking the key from the box and heading back down the steps, Autumn sighed and grabbed a lantern before she went back outside to find the cellar door that was waiting for her in the backyard. It was on the back of the house and covered in dust and cobwebs, giving the look that it had indeed not been used in a while. She stepped closer to the door and grabbed the padlock, putting the blade of the key inside of the locking mechanism and turning it. Soon the shackle popped out and Autumn took the lock off the door and opened it, revealing a seat of stairs leading down.

Anxiety started to build up as she walked down the wooden stairs, from the anticipation of finding the code and the flashbacks of her fleeing to the room to hide when her game got shut down. Autumn kept her eyes forward as she finally reached the bottom of the steps and walked down the corridor of the basement. It had an eerie atmosphere as compared to the rest of_ Spring Fever_, with brick walls and stone flooring that echoed as the gardener took a step. Even with the flame of the lantern the place still felt rather dark, so Autumn had to take a bit of caution as she explored. She held it up to get a better look of what was ahead of her and spotted a door and the end of the corridor.

Breathing a sigh of relief, the heroine of the game hurried her pace to the round wooden door. Autumn stopped in front of it and looked up at it nervously, preparing herself for what she was going to see behind it.

"Well", she said, her voice echoing in the empty hallway, "here goes nothing."

Autumn removed the key from around her neck and placed it into the keyhole. After she unlocked the door she opened it, soft light illuminating the hallway. Before stepping through the door frame she turned the dial on her lantern and ceased the flame from burning.

What she had witnessed on the other side was a large contrast to what she had seen before. The code room was a flower field that seemed endless, with an expansive blue sky that cast a comforting ray of light onit. There were wooden signposts scattered about with the names of everything that was in the game. The wires that connected the codes ran underneath the ground and out of sight, but they still caused the signposts to emit a soft glow. Even though the code room had a very pleasant atmosphere, it still gave Autumn chills.

"I don't even know where to start." She tugged at the bow of her bandana anxiously and walked by each code sign, looking for something that could give her a hint about what the secret in the game was. Each board was checked, but she couldn't see anything unusual. The walk through the field was tiresome and kept Autumn feeling like she was in an endless loop of flowers and rickety old notices. Every code sign she looked at, none of them provided any clues.

By the time she got to the codes for her farm animals, she sat the ground and exhaled weary breath. The farmer had forgotten how huge the code room was and realized that she was going to spend a while in there. Looking up at the sky, she began to think about the last three days that she had spent in the arcade. To her, it was pretty eventful since she had met Ralph. He was a nice fellow, in her opinion, but he seemed a bit awkward and clumsy. She laughed a bit at the thought, wondering what was going to happen the next time she saw him.

_"It was nice of Ralph to invite me to explore Game Central Station with him tonight. I hope I'll be presentable after rummaging through Spring Fever like this. Maybe I'll freshen up before... I..."_

Autumn got halted by something that she saw out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head to get a better look, and her suspicion had been correct. There was a large patch of dirt and dead flowers that was isolated among the rest of the healthy vegetation that surrounded it. The farmer stood up and got closer to the dirt patch, getting a sense of excitement and fear at the same time. When she got to the top of the hill that the barren area was on, she found another code sign. However, it stood out against the others because there was nothing written on it.

"... Now_ this_ is something strange. Why is everything in this one spot dead? And, more importantly... Why is this sign completely blank?" she put her hand on the code sign in curiosity, but upon contact an electric current surged through her body. Withdrawing her hand away as quickly as she could, Autumn shrieked as she stepped back from the sign. It didn't do much good as there was already a burn mark on her palm. She held it as she winced in pain.

"Okay, I think there's something wrong here!"

The farmer tried to think of a possible reason about why this code was in the state that it was in. "... This seems like a faulty code to me, but then again, I haven't seen anything in the game that seemed to be broken..."

She turned her back and began to head out of the code room. Her efforts to find the secret were a big flop as all she could find was a possible broken code, and since the sign for it was blank, there was no way for her to know what it was for and how to fix it. Hopefully it wasn't anything serious enough to get her game put out of order, or worse... But she couldn't worry about that now. Ralph had promised that he was going to meet her outside of her game and Autumn didn't want to keep him waiting.

- 0 - 0 - 0 -

Ralph watched as _Spring Fever_'s train arrived through the tunnel and came to a smooth stop. The Random Roster Race in _Sugar Rush_ was starting soon, and his nervousness was starting to get worse at the thoughts of him introducing Autumn to his friends. He didn't prepare any sort of speech to make since he wanted to appear relaxed and natural, but in the state he was in at that moment, there was no way that he was going to be able to cover it up. The wrecker watched as the heroine of the game got off of the hayride and walked down the stairs of the platform. Trying to put on a cool, calm and collected façade, he smiled at her and waved his hand.

"Hey", he said, "ready to go?"

Autumn looked up at him and smiled back nervously as she wrung her hands. "Yes. Where are we headed?" Remembering that her injury was there she recoiled and put her hands on her sides.

Her companion's eyes went wide with concern as he asked, "Are you alright?"

The farmer removed her gaze on him and replied, "y-yes, I'm fine..."

"I saw you flinch your hand."

"Don't worry, it's nothing."

Ralph folded his arms and looked at her in contempt. He wasn't going to buy her story since she looked like she was in pain a moment ago. "I want to see it."

She shook her head and reassured him again that there was nothing wrong. If there was something that the giant had gotten good at, it was seeing through a lie. Vanellope would do the same thing to him and he could always tell just by looking at her body he could see Autumn making the same face as her.

"C'mon, Autumn", he coaxed, "we're not leaving until you tell me what happened."

Sighing in defeat, the woman showed him her palm, which had a small first-degree burn on it. Ralph scrunched up his face and made an audible "ouch" as she began to explain. "I got shocked by one of the signs in my code room."

The man gaped his mouth open slightly before he was able to respond. "... H-How did that happen? There isn't anything wrong with the game, is it?"

"Not that I can tell", Autumn said, "but... The code that shocked me was definitely off. You see, _Spring Fever_'s code room is a giant flower field, and all the codes are represented as signs that are posted in the ground, each having the name of an object or character in the game. The one I found, however... There was nothing written on it. And, even stranger, there was a patch of dirt and dead grass around it."

"Sounds like there's some corrupted data", said Ralph as he put his hand on his chin.

"That's what I thought too, but..."

"What?" he asked after she had gone silent for a few moments.

She took a deep breath and continued. "The reason I was in the code room was because I was looking for something. That blogger had come back to the arcade to play my game, but all he did was mash the buttons on the control panel! I was confused to say the least... But it turned out that he was trying to find a secret code. Apparently, the creator of my game had revealed it on his blog, and didn't say what it was or how to find it."

Ralph scratched his head before his spoke, trying to take in everything that she had said. Cheat codes was nothing new to him, as several games in the arcade had them, but what she was describing sounded strange. "So you think that code you found was the secret?"

Autumn nodded. "Maybe, but I have my doubts. Is it possible for a secret to be hidden in the data?"

"Hmm... Well, most cheat codes are visible in a game's code room and they stay dormant until something during gameplay triggers it, such as a password."

The gardener folded her arms and looked down at her feet. "It sounds like it's corrupted data after all... I'm not sure how I'm going to fix it, though."

"I wouldn't worry too much about it", Ralph reassured her, "if it hasn't disrupted the gameplay at all, then it's probably something minor."

"Yes, you're right", she said, "it's probably for the best to leave it alone for now."

Ralph put his hands on his pockets—or, as much as he could fit into them—and looked out into Game Central Station behind him. Suddenly he felt something in one of the pockets and realized that he had put Autumn's bandage in there. Remembering that he was going to give it back to her, he took the cloth out and held it up between two of his sausage fingers.

"I thought you would want this back. Don't worry, I had it washed it after I took it off."

Autumn took it from him and wrapped it around her palm to cover up the blister that was beginning to form. "Thank you, Ralph. I wish I would've gotten one of these on the way out."

"It's no problem", answered the bad guy, scratching the back of his neck.

They stood silent soon after that as Ralph lead the way to the proper of Game Central Station, preparing himself for another confrontation with the Surge Protector. Just as he expected, the blue man had appeared right on cue as soon as he stepped through the threshold of the terminal. He looked at Ralph and held up his clipboard before he spoke.

"... Name?"

The taller man clenched his fists and groaned, "_Again_?!"

"I have to, sir", he said, "it's part of the protocol."

"But you should know my name by now!"

Surge shook his head and retorted, "well _I_ have to do my job."

The main character of _Spring Fever_ looked at them in confusion, unaware of the squabbles that they liked to throw back and forth at each other.

"Okay, _fine_", said Ralph, "but we're in a hurry and I just want to get this over with."

"Alright." the blue man looked up at the wrecker and asked again, "name?"

'Wreck-It Ralph."

"Where are you coming from?"

"_Spring Fever_."

The security guard averted his direction to the character that was standing next to him, then back to Ralph. "... And where are you headed?"

"Her Presidency is expecting us in _Sugar Rush_", he replied as he tried to sound authoritative, "the Random Roster Race is starting soon, and, as _Sir _Wreck-It Ralph, her Presidency's Honorary Knight, it would not be wise to make my colleague and I tardy."

Surge couldn't help but chuckle a little at his attempt to be professional in his awkward tone of voice, even seeing Autumn cover her laughter with her mouth out of the corner of his eye. "Oh ho ho! Well then,_ Sir_ Wreck-It Ralph, I won't keep you waiting!"

Ralph walked ahead through the barrier that stopped them, Autumn following closely behind. That is, until the guard stopped her.

"Hang on a moment", he said, "just because you're with him doesn't mean you get out of my security check."

The woman hung her head and sighed. "Oh, alright..."

Surge turned a page in his clipboard and turned his gaze back to her. "Name?"

"Autumn Bramblewood, sir."

"Where are you coming from?"

"Didn't you hear what Ralph said?" she asked in a mildly perturbed tone.

Ralph's eyes went wide as he was shocked by her guts to backtalk the Surge Protector. However, Surge seemed just as unphased as ever as he shot her a glance and wrote things down on his clipboard.

"Just tell me where you're coming from please", he stated.

Autumn fidgeted with the tie of her bandana as she answered, "_Spring Fever_."

The Surge Protector nodded. "And where are you headed?"

"But you just heard Ralph say—"

"Where are you headed?" he repeated, his tone firmer than before.

She groaned softly and replied, "_Sugar Rush_."

"Anything to declare?"

"Not really."

"Proceed." Surge vanished from sight and allowed Autumn to pass through the barrier, joining up with Ralph again.

"He's annoying", she admitted as she sighed in exasperation.

"Tell me something I didn't know", Ralph chuckled, "Surge and I have a pretty weird relationship. Not sure why, but he really loves to get under my skin."

"That doesn't seem professional of him to do", Autumn added.

Ralph nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he thinks he can do whatever he wants just because he's in charge of Game Central Station."

They looked at each other and laughed gently as they were of the same mind about the Surge Protector. The wrecker didn't expect her to be just as annoyed with him as he was, and it let him see a different side of her besides her usual demeanor.

"... It was funny when you giving him that speech", she said a few moments later.

"Hey, I had to!" he said, "I didn't want him holding us up all day. Vanellope and the others are waiting for us."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Autumn questioned, "you said it yourself: the race is starting soon!"

Ralph laughed as he saw the eagerness in her eyes. "Okay, then, let's go!" he lead the way through the crowd of Game Central Station and scoped out the portal to _Sugar Rush_.


	10. Can You Handle the Rush?

_**Chapter 10: Can You Handle the Rush?**_

The trek through Game Central Station to the _Sugar Rush_ portal wasn't a terribly difficult one, but what Ralph didn't expect to see at the entrance was Vanellope standing there with her kart. He had told her to stay inside of the game and wait for him to show up at the race track, but it appeared that she did not listen to him one bit. The wrecker should've known that it wasn't going to work anyway as she never listened to anything he said. After all, she was the president and she felt entitled to do whatever she wanted.

When he finally reached Vanellope, she jumped out of her driver's seat and ran towards him excitedly, but when she saw Autumn she stopped in her tracks. Ralph could feel the embarrassment seep through his pores as he watched the little girl move her eyes between him and his companion. She was silent for several moments as she examined the duo before her and then gave her friend a playful smirk. Ralph tried his best not to show his uneasiness, but Vanellope could see right through him.

Vanellope turned to face Ralph and gazed at him expectantly. "Well, Stinkbrain? Aren't you gonna introduce us?"

Ralph's eyes widened and he gave her an awkward expression. He was preparing himself to scold her for not being in _Sugar Rush_, but she had caught him in a taffy web that he couldn't get out of. It was made worse for him when Autumn also looked at him waiting for him to do something. He cursed internally for being so weak against cute girls and shook his head before he stepped between them.

"Vanellope, Autumn. Autumn, Vanellope", he said while backing up a little to let them face each other.

The candy girl stepped closer to the gardener and extended her hand. "Nice to meet ya!"

"Same to you!" Autumn responded as she returned the handshake.

When they finished, Vanellope stepped back a little and said, "glad you took my invitation to come to the race today! Trust me, you're gonna _love_ it!"

"It was no trouble at all", answered the woman with a slight bow, "Ralph said that _Sugar Rush_ had the best races in the arcade!"

"And the best _racer_ in the arcade!" the girl pointed to herself and winked.

Ralph put his hands on his hips. "Yep, and you're gonna win the race today, right?"

"No Fun-Dip, Brick Boy", she retorted as she stuck her tongue out at him.

"So why aren't you at the starting line now?"

"You were gone forever so I left to find you, but you guys already showed up before I could go into Game Central Station."

"You can blame the Surge Protector for that", replied the man with a sigh.

Vanellope climbed on his shoulder and squished his cheeks. "Well, you're here now, so that means I can go back in _Sugar Rush_ and get ready for the race!"

Ralph picked her up by her hoodie and started walking to her kart, putting her in the driver's seat once he reached it. "Well, what are we waiting for, kid? Let's get a move on!"

"Okay, okay! Just let me start the engine first!"

The sound of the kart revving up echoed in the tunnel and that was Ralph's cue to get on the back of the kart. He looked over at Autumn, who was still standing next to the vehicle with her hands behind her back. Ralph beckoned to her with his giant hand to get in the kart, but she didn't move.

The lummox tossed his head to the side in impatience and stated, "c'mon, Autumn, we can't just sit here all day."

"There's no room", she protested.

"Sure there is." Ralph gestured to the space between his lap and the back of Vanellope's head.

Autumn eyed it in concern for a few seconds and looked back up at him to say, "are you sure? I mean... What if I fall off?"

"Just hang on tight and you'll be fine."

She pondered for a few seconds longer and then climbed on the kart in the space that Ralph had left for her. Her heart started to beat faster as she felt the anticipation overwhelm her, and it also didn't help that she was sitting so close to the big oaf. The gardener kept her head straight towards the tunnel ahead of them and fidgeted with her bandana tie.

Vanellope glanced behind her and asked, "you guys ready?"

"Ready", said Ralph.

"Yes", replied Autumn.

The president turned back around and pushed the gas pedal on the kart, leading it through the electric passage to the proper of _Sugar Rush_. Darkness shrouded over the trio instantly with the headlight from the kart shining the path ahead, and in the distance the familiar tune of the game's theme song could be heard. Autumn leaned in to try to get a better listen, but it was incomprehensible to her. As they got closer to the _Sugar Rush_ entrance the music got louder and she began to sing along with it, replacing the Japanese lyrics with the word 'la'. Vanellope rocked her head side to side forming a duet with her, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel of the kart.

"C'mon, Stinky", the little girl said, "you know you wanna join us!"

"Nah, I'll pass. I don't wanna make you guys suffer from my horrible voice."

Vanellope scrunched up her nose and laughed. "Eww, on second thought..." she turned her attention back to the tunnel and continued the song. They kept going until the kart had reached the end of the passageway and the driver slowed down so she could let her eyes adjust to the light change.

"... Alright, chumps, we're almost there!"

She tightened her grip on the wheel as she got closer to the entrance to the rainbow bridge, anticipating Autumn's reaction to seeing _Sugar Rush_ for the first time. As she pulled up to the edge of the slope she smiled and looked over her fair land. Taking a deep breath, she leaned back in her chair and kicked her feet up. Autumn got out and walked towards the other side of the kart with Ralph following behind her. She couldn't believe what she was seeing as she gazed at the landscape in awe, her hands covering her mouth and her eyes wide.

The wrecker caught up to her and stood next to her, folding his arms in satisfaction. "So... This is it." he turned his head to face her. "... what do you think, Autumn?"

There was a moment of silence before Autumn spun around and exclaimed, "this is _incredible_! I've never seen anything like this! You weren't kidding, Ralph... Everything really _is_ made of sweets!"

Ralph watched her clenched hands tremble as she spoke. He hadn't seen anyone this excited about coming to_ Sugar Rush_ before!

"This is only the beginning", he replied, "there's still a lot to see."

"Yep!" Vanellope chimed in as she glitched between them.

Autumn shrieked and jumped in surprise before she stumbled backward and fell on her rear. Ralph shot a glance at Vanellope before he helped the woman back on her feet.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yes, don't worry", the farmer answered, "just got a bit of a shock."

"You didn't poop your pants, did ya?" Vanellope added.

The other female widened her eyes. "Um... I don't think so."

"Oh, good", the president replied, "because I've made Ralph poop his like a million times! He's _so_ easy to startle!"

"No you didn't!" Ralph argued as his face turned red, "I said I _almost _soiled myself _one time_!"

"Whatever you say, Chumbo..."

She turned back to Autumn and said, "he can be such a diaper baby sometimes."

Autumn looked up and Ralph and then back at Vanellope. "I-I see..."

They stood silent for a few moments and observed more of the horizon into the president stretched her arms out and declared, "Welp, I'm bored, let's go!"

She headed back to her kart and got in her seat while she waited for her friends to follow. Ralph shrugged at Autumn before they walked towards Vanellope and got back in the vehicle, and as soon as they did Vanellope started the engine.

"Hang on to your butts!" she said before she hit the gas pedal and went flying down the rainbow road.

The kart went much faster than before, causing Autumn to scream and hold on to her head so her bandana wouldn't fall off. Ralph held on to the kart with his hands for dear life as he always did as Vanellope sped down the bridge, her ponytail whipping in the wind and totally focused on getting to her destination. Zipping and sliding all the way to the _Sugar Rush _proper, the president never lost control and expertly maneuvered past the welcome sign and came to a skidding stop in the middle of the main road. After she turned the ignition off Vanellope turned around and looked at her passengers. Autumn looked white in the face and had her hands clutched to her chest while Ralph had gotten out of the kart trying to help her regain her composure.

"Autumn, are you okay?!" He asked worriedly.

Autumn managed to get out of the candy car, but she was only able to stagger towards the audience boxes nearby before her legs buckled beneath her and she collapsed on the ground. Ralph ran after her and leaned down to her level and rolled her on her back as he nudged her to wake her up. The driver jumped out of her seat and watched as her giant Stinkbrain tried to wake up the Flower Lady. Soon Vanellope got fed up and took a piece of candy out of her pocket and waved it under Autumn's nose.

"What're you doing?!" Ralph questioned.

"Trying to get your girlfriend to wake up, dumb dumb!"

His face burned red as he folded his arms and looked away from her after giving her a grumpy grunt.

The president stuck her tongue out at him, and when she turned back to her "patient", she had opened her eyes and put her hand on her forehead while sitting up.

"Nice to have you back with us, Autumn", Vanellope said playfully.

Ralph spun back around when he heard her say that and went to her side.

"I'm so sorry, Autumn", he apologized profusely, "Vanellope can get pretty intense when she drives, and I know it must be pretty overwhelming for you to have to take all of this in at once."

After she stood up and brushed the candy dust off of her dress, Autumn looked at Vanellope and slowly cracked a smile before she clasped her hands together and gained a thrilled look in her eyes.

"Oh my gosh, that was the most thrilling thing I've ever experienced! You were going so fast I thought my pixels were going to fly off!"

"Told ya I was the best!" Vanellope replied with a thumbs up.

Ralph breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness you're alright... I thought I was _really_ going to soil myself!"

"I can't believe I actually fell out", Autumn said, "I guess I'm not used to all that speed."

"You gotta be able to handle the rush", the kart racer added, "or else you won't make it around here. But don't worry, as long as you're under my wing, you'll do great!"

"Thank you", responded the woman with a warm smile, "you've been very welcoming so far, I appreciate it."

"No need to get all sentimental on me", joked Vanellope playfully, "I'm just doing what presidents do."

Before the trio could say anything else, an announcement was made over the intercom of the game: "Citizens of _Sugar Rush_, the Random Roster Race is about to begin."

"That's your cue, kid", said Ralph as he gave her a fist bump, "knock 'em dead!"

"Oh, you know I will!"

President von Schweetz turned to Autumn and kept her fist held out for her. "you want one too, Autumn?"

"Sure!" she answered as they knocked their knuckles together, "good luck with the race!"

"I don't need any luck, I know I'm gonna win!"

Vanellope gave them a thumbs up before she walked to her kart and got into the driver's seat. She turned the engine on and took off leaving a trail of sugary dust in her wake, causing the adults to cough and wave their hands in their faces trying to get the powdered sugar out of their faces. When they were able to see again Ralph began to trudge towards the stands where the _Sugar Rush_ residents were waiting for the race to start with Autumn following him.

"Oh my gosh, Ralph", she exclaimed as she pointed to the candy people, "look at all of them! Are you sure we'll be able to find somewhere to sit? It looks awfully crowded already."

"Sure we are", answered Ralph, "we're gonna sit in the VIP section."

He pointed to the large pink box sitting front and center of the race track and the gardener put her hands over her mouth in amazement. "Wow."

"Pretty cool, huh?" he replied with a chuckle, "we're gonna have a bird's eye view of the action."

They continued their walk to the spectator's box, climbing up the stairs leading to the top once they got there. Sour Bill was already there holding his microphone as he was preparing to make another announcement to the masses, but before he did so he looked up at Ralph and gave him his usual gloomy look.

"Hello", he said.

"Sour Bill", answered Ralph shortly.

The green gumball turned away from him and faced Autumn. "... Who are you?"

She bowed and told him, "I'm Autumn Bramblewood from _Spring Fever_."

Bill remained silent with his stone expression until he droned, "welcome to _Sugar Rush_."

The farmer was taken aback by his glum attitude and frowned in confusion. "Oh, um... Thank you."

"Don't worry about him", Ralph whispered to her, "he's always like this."

"I can see that", Autumn replied as she watched Vanellope's advisor tap his microphone and cleared his throat before he spoke again.

"Racers, please have your coins ready to throw into the pot."

All the _Sugar Rush_ racers lined up in front of the giant golden pot with their coins ready to be tossed in. Vanellope stepped up first and tossed her coin in the air, a rainbow slide catching it and sucking it up inside before her name appears on the contestant board.

"Vanellope von Schweetz!" the unseen announcer's voice rang out as the president jumped up into the air and did her programmed pose, meeting eyes with her friends and giving them a wave.

Autumn turned to Ralph again and asked, "they have to pay to get into the race?"

"Yeah", explained Ralph, "they use the coins they earned in a previous race to participate in the next one. Since _Sugar Rush_'s roster rotates every day, the Random Roster Races determine who shows up on it. There's only nine spots open so it's pretty crazy how competitive these kids get."

"That sounds pretty intense", she responded before she looked back at race track and watched the other racers give their winnings to the bowl.

"Taffyta Muttonfudge!"

The pink strawberry racer posed as she called out, "stay sweet!" to her fans as they went wild.

Autumn scrunched her nose in disgust and mumbled, "mutton fudge...? That sounds awful!"

"Oh, the names are gonna get much weirder than that", Ralph said with a laugh.

They turned back to watch the rest of the racers add their names to the board, each name getting stranger and stranger just like Ralph had said. It was beyond Autumn's understanding what a "brumble stain" was or what a "wipplesnit" tasted like, but she didn't bother to completely analyze the logic of the game's programmers. When the roll call was finally finished the _Sugar Rush_ cast got into their karts and got ready for Sour Bill to give them the okay to start. The anthropomorphic piece of candy scurried off to the starting line and held up a flag to signal the racers to go.

"Three... Two... One..."

The racers revved their engines and braced themselves for the road ahead.

"GO!"

With the wave of the flag the _Sugar Rush_ kids went flying down the race track and the fans in the stands went wild. The spectators in the VIP booth looked up at the jumbotron to see Vanellope's kart sandwiched between Swizzle Malarkey and Torvald Batterbutter, desperately trying to use her ability to get past them. Taffyta was in the lead and gave the camera a smug look, but the glory didn't last long as Adorabeezle Winterpop fired a snow cone ball at Muttonfudge and her kart spun out on the track, letting her take over the spot.

Her peppermint candy fans went wild and cheered loudly in their seats, and soon the jumbotron began to focus on Vanellope again, who had sped past Taffyta thanks to the ice pop girl's efforts. However, she wasn't going to go easy on her and picked up a cherry bomb on the track. The president squinted as she aimed the weapon at Adorabeezle's rear, but got sideswiped by Minty and the bomb hit the wall.

"C'mon, kid!" barked Ralph, "don't lose your focus!"

Autumn looked up and pointed at the results board. "Vanellope's fallen to sixth place!"

"Gaah!"

Vanellope swerved past Minty and kept a steady pace ahead of her, ready to knock out Swizzle with a Sweet Seeking Missile.

"Eat my pixie stick dust, Malarkey!" she called out as she fired the missile.

Swizzle lost control of his kart trying to dodge the attack and swerved off the track into some lollipop trees. The president's fans cheered as her avatar moved up to fifth place on the roster, with Sticky Wipplesnit and Citrusella Flugpucker ahead of her. Pushing harder on the gas pedal, she caught up with them and picked up a Syrup Puddle. As soon as she got the competitors ahead of her on her radar, she launched the puddle and caused Sticky to get stuck in the mess, but Citrusella was able to dodge out of the line of fire.

- 0 - 0 - 0 -

Meanwhile, Calhoun just passed through the outlet of _Sugar Rush_ on her hoverboard, Felix by her side. They sailed through the skies of _Sugar Rush_ and headed for the race track as quickly as they could before they missed even more of the event that they arrived late to. The sergeant's hawk eyes spotted the racers speeding through the saccharine terrain. Her lips curled into a smile and picked up speed towards the spectator's area. It didn't take long until they made their landing and walked up the steps behind the stand, pulling back the curtain to see Ralph and Autumn watching the jumbotron closely.

"Hello, brother", greeted Felix while he took a place beside Ralph.

Ralph turned to his side and saw the handyman standing beside him smiling, while Calhoun was on the other side of her husband. "Woah, what kept you guys?"

He leaned into his co-worker's ear and whispered, "... It took me a lot longer than I thought it would to unclog Gene's toilet."

"Ugh,_ again_?!" the wrecker groaned in disgust, "that's the third time this week!"

"I know", replied Felix with a sigh, "a superintendent's work is never done."

Ralph glanced back at the jumbotron to rid himself of the disgusting image and witnessed Jubileena Bing-Bing grab a Peppermint Spray, ready to fire it at Vanellope. The president saw her in her rearview mirror, but by the time she did the cherry girl had already blinded her and tried her best not to lose control of her kart.

"Aaagh!" she cried out while tears ran down her face from the peppermint, "my eyes!"

All of her fans gasped and a few cries encouraging her to keep her concentration as she swerved all over the track and disorienting the other racers that tried to get out of the way. It finally came to an end when she came to a wall and was unable to turn away from it, crashing into it head on. The pit crew came to Vanellope's immediately and started to repair her kart as fast as they could while she sat with her teeth gritted and her hands gripping the wheel tightly.

The leaderboard had changed to reflect her mishap and her name plummeted down the list as the other racers began to surpass her until she had dropped to eleventh place.

"Stay calm, Vanellope", muttered Ralph, "you still got this!"

Vanellope took a deep breath and kept going after the pit crew had gotten her back on the track. Sure, she had fallen out of the top nine places in the race, but she was determined to get back up on the ladder. Everyone in the VIP booth sighed in relief as they watched her rank go back up on the board at the end of the first lap.

"Thank goodness", said Autumn, "I hope she'll be able to catch up!"

"Oh, she will", Ralph replied, "see, look, she's already caught up to eighth place."

He pointed at the roster where Vanellope name was sandwiched between Snowanna Rainbeau and Rancis. "As long as she doesn't get wiped out again, she'll be fine."

They turned back to the action of the race and watch as Vanellope managed to wipe out Snowanna and Rancis, climbing her way back to sixth place on the leaderboard, looking out for the next character to pass by, Swizzle. He wasn't looking too happy when he saw her in his mirror after the missile incident and was ready to get his revenge. Vanellope gave him a smirk and speed up towards the first of three items that would activate her special move, but Swizzle and everyone else around them were eying it, so it was an all out slam session trying to get to it. The racers in the vicinity were ramming their karts into the other as they were desperate to reach the special item, some crying out that it was theirs and that they needed one more to blow the competition away.

The struggle finally ended when Vanellope grabbed the power up and activated her teleport, moving herself up to fifth place past Swizzle. All she had left to deal with now was Jubileena, Citrusella, Crumbelina DiCaramello and Minty, and the first place spot was hers.

"You guys better watch out", she yelled, "'cause I'm gonna win this race!"

Jubileena turned around and retorted, "not after I grab that bottle of maple syrup and get your kart stuck on the track!"

"Oh yeah?" scoffed Vanellope, "we'll see about that!"

She sped up towards the item that her opponent mentioned as soon as she saw it in her sights, and everyone in the stands cheered her on as she got closer. The bottle of syrup was right there, ripe for the picking, and the president drove over it and picked it up, the item hovering over her head. Vanellope looked at her console and aimed the syrup at Jubileena before she fired it forward. A brown, sticky substance covered a spot in the road and Bing-Bing got her tires stuck in it after failing to avoid the trap.

"Yeah!" shouted Ralph, "keep it up, kid!"

Vanellope laughed as she took her fourth place spot, switching her focus on getting to the finish line to complete the second lap of the race. It had been a rocky start for her but she felt like she was picking up momentum.

"Vanellope is doing great, isn't she?" Autumn asked, "she's done pretty well getting past all those obstacles!"

Ralph nodded and replied, "she's a natural!"

The president had crossed the finish line and entered the final lap of the race with a confident grin. She could feel it in her code that she was going to win the race but she didn't want to let her guard down. Citrusella was still in front of her trying to prevent her from taking her spot, as well as trying to bump off Crumbelina and Minty. Vanellope wasn't going to let any of their tactics distract her and just kept going, ignoring the seething Jubileena behind her trying to catch up.

Crumbelina took first place when Minty fell of the edge of the track after a faulty turn, which also gave Vanellope the opportunity to move to second place. Looking in her rearview mirror she saw another Sweet Seeking Missle come flying towards her and tried to dodge it, making it hit Jubileena's recolor instead.

"One more", von Schweetz mumbled to herself, "just one more!"

She squinted her eyes and clenched her hands on the wheel while she concentrated on getting closer to her opponent. Crumbelina noticed her coming closer and sped up to get away, but Vanellope followed suit and the two began to accelerate faster and faster through the course. Neither of them paid attention to the crowd's shouting and screaming as they had gone into their own world trying to outdo each other. Time seemed to stand still the further along the track they went, ramming into each other and throwing weapons as they fought for the first place spot. Vanellope and Crumbelina's names kept flip-flopping back and forth on the leaderboard, and the crowd was getting anxious from it happening. Everyone was on the edge of their seat as they watched the struggle, witnessing the most intense moment they've seen in a Random Roster Race in a while.

"You can cut the tension in the air with a knife", said Calhoun.

Felix nodded and agreed. "I'll say! This one's real close, isn't it?"

"No kidding", Ralph added before he shouted, "c'mon, Vanellope, you're almost there!"

The battle between DiCaramello and Von Schweetz raged on as they each obtained weapons and prepared to fire them at each other. Vanellope gave a smug smile before firing it, but Crumbelina dodged it and kept going, letting off her own weapon towards her.

"Shoot!" shouted the president as she turned her wheel to get out of the way, allowing Rancis to take the bullet for her. After breathing a sigh of relief she kept going and noticed that she was halfway to the finish line.

"Get out of the way, DiCaramello!" Vanellope called out, "_I'm_ supposed to win this race!"

Crumbelina simply ignored her taunt as she continued on, her animal cracker fans cheering her on along the way. This was the first time she had been in first place in a while, and the thrill of it all made her get a little more aggressive than usual. Sure, she let Vanellope use her kart to rescue Ralph from Diet Cola Mountain, and she had become better friends with her like the other racers had... But now, Vanellope was the catalyst for her success of the race, and she was determined to win.

It was getting down to the wire as the racers were approaching the finish line, each throwing in their last ditch efforts to win. The leaderboard continued to swap names back and forth wildly, the crowd continuing to watch on the edge of their seats. Sweat was dripping down the racers' faces as they tried to keep up their composure through the intensity of everything that was happening.

Sour Bill ran up to the finish line when he saw the racers creep up from behind the hill and watched carefully to see who was coming. Vanellope and Crumbelina were side by side as they approached the finish line, but it wasn't easy for the president's advisor to tell who was going to finish first. Bill held his flag steady and waited for them, ready to wave it at the first person that passed him.

"I'm not sure if I can look", said Autumn as she covered her eyes.

"Don't worry", replied Ralph, "the kid's got this all wrapped up."

Vanellope squinted her eyes with great determination as she braced herself for the end of the race. The crowd continued to go wild as the racers got closer and closer to the finish line, but the president had blocked everything out so much that she couldn't hear them anymore. It was all or nothing at this point. Everything was a blur to her until she heard the announcer of the game shout, "FINISH!"

After bringing herself back to reality and realizing that the race was over, she looked up at the contestant board and her mouth hung open in shock.

"The winner of the race", Sour Bill droned to the spectators, "... is Crumbelina DiCaramello."

* * *

Uuugh, this chapter... I apologize for the excessively long wait, but this chapter was a real beast to get through. Between me getting writer's block, going back to college and other personal obligations, this ended up being the hardest chapter to write yet. Thankfully, Chapter 11 has been floating around in my head a lot recently, so I _hope_ it will be a cakewalk compared to this.


End file.
